


One Sentence, One Word, One Key

by Caitlin_the_Mage



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Multi, Polyamory, Polygamy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-17
Updated: 2017-12-03
Packaged: 2018-09-23 17:56:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 31
Words: 47,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9669755
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caitlin_the_Mage/pseuds/Caitlin_the_Mage
Summary: Fairy Tail is a story with many complex parts, and if you change even one, you change the whole story. This is what I imagine would happen if three things changed. Natsu knows about END, Ultear didn't turn back when she saw her mom, and Layla had the Aquarius key. Also, I have added that people have a countdown clock to the meeting of their soulmate on their forearms. Updates some time on Sunday.





	1. One Sentance

Natsu was confused. Not that that was out of the ordinary, he was a ten-year-old human living with a dragon that was centuries old after all, but the reason he was confused was what made this time interesting.

The reason he was confused that night was his adopted father, the fire-dragon king Igneel, had flown him to the side of a mountain with a really big pair of doors in it. Around it sat the only other humans he knew, Anna Heartfillia, Gajeel Redfox, Wendy Marvel, Rouge Cheney, and Sting Eucliffe. Only the first one, the only adult amongst them, was without a dragon to accompany them.

“Igneel, what’s going on?” asked the boy, “Why are we meeting here? I thought I wouldn’t get to see the others for another week.”

“Yeah,” Gajeel asked his own dragon, “Why are we here?”

“I think I should explain,” said a new person who emerged from beside the doors. He had short black hair, pale skin, and dressed like a king in mourning. “Children, are you aware what the three fates are that befall dragon slayer mages?”

“They go mad from sensory overload, go into a bloodlust that they never escape from, or they turn into dragons,” said Rouge, “but Skiadrum said that since we started learning at such a young age that the first two wouldn’t happen to us, and that he and the other dragons had found a way to stop us from becoming dragons.”

“Yes,” said the mysterious man, “And these doors are going to help you. There is a special spell that only dragons can use that will let make you create antibodies to not turn into dragons. The only problem is that there is that making the antibodies cost so much magic that it would take all the magic in the continent just to make enough for Wendy,” he gestured to the smallest of the children before patting the doors, “and that’s where these come in.”

“Those are the Eclipse gates,” said Anna, “When opened by my magic, they create a portal in time that will send you all forward in time to a time where there will be ample magic to form the antibodies.”

“Wait,” called Wendy, “Grandine taught me that antibodies are only made to fight germs we’re already sick with, so how will we make the antibodies if we don’t have any dragon in us?”

To this, the dragons began to shuffle around, until the iron dragon, Metalicana, said “That’s actually why only dragons can use this spell. We’re going to have our souls reside in your bodies while you make the antibodies.”

“OK, two questions!” yelled the pink haired dragon slayer, “First, who’s that black haired guy? Second, if your souls go into us, what will happen to you?”

The black haired man just sighed for a moment before saying, “So it seems you really don’t remember anything from before. My name, Natsu, is Zeref Dragneel. I’m your brother.”  
This startled all of the children. “W-what?!” said Natsu, “My brother? I thought none of the dragon slayers had any family before the dragons found them.”

“That’s true for the others,” Zeref explained, “And while you do have me, our whole village was destroyed in a dragon attack, I was the only survivor, and even then only because I was out getting flowers for our mother. I then spent the better part of a century trying to bring you back, and in the process was cursed to take the lives of anything I hold dear, while personally being unable to die the more I want to. I even created an entire race of demons, the Etherios, to kill me. The only one strong enough to do it would be you, Etherios Natsu Dragneel. Yes, I know I’m insane, comes with the curse. And to answer your second question of what will happen to your dragons, they’ll die. No, you can’t not have them cast the spell on you, not unless you want to be like Acnologia, which is not an option. Now, everyone, you have just enough time to say your goodbyes before you need to cast the spells.” And with that, the dark mage turned around and walked down the mountain.

The children were speechless for a moment. Wendy quickly turned around, however, and began to beg her foster mother to not cast the spell that would kill the dragon, which lead the other children to attempt to do the same. This was unsuccessful, however, as the dragons began to mutter a spell, tears welling up in their eyes. Before long a ball of light left the dragons’ mouths and began to float down toward the children, still hugging their parents.

When she saw the balls of light, Anna began to open the doors. “Open oh Eclipse Gates, send these children forward three hundred years,” she paused as the spirits of the dragons entered their children before yelling “ZODIAC!”

There was a blinding flash of golden light as thirteen spirits appeared before her, flew up, and pried the Eclipse Gate open. The children dissolved into light and were sucked into the doors.

As the light faded, Anna was surrounded only by the bodies of the last dragons. Then she let the tears flow. When she had finished, she began to descended the mountain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first fic, so please feel free to give me critisim and tell me any ships you want to see.


	2. One Word

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ultear rejoins her mother.

The sun was high in the sky, and Ultear was cold and tired. that she was beginning to forget what it was like to be warm and well rested. She had been wandering around this frozen forest for days. Or was it weeks? Months? She didn’t know. All she knew was that she had to get home to her mama.

As Ultear got to a clearing, she saw her. She saw her mother, and with energy she didn’t know she had, she ran. 

“Mama!” she cried.

The woman turned around, and began to run to her child, calling out her name. Mother and daughter ran to one another and embraced, falling to the ground at the edge of the forest, tears pouring down their faces. 

“Mama, I missed you so much,” Ultear cried.

“You’re alive,” Ur choked out behind her tears, “You’re _alive_. They said you’d died, but you’re alive.”

Two boys, both in their underwear, came up behind them. When they reached the pair, the one with black hair asked “Ur, who’s this?”

“Is that your daughter?” said the other, who had white hair.

“She has a daughter!” said the first boy.

Ur sat up, whipped her eyes, looked at the boys.

“Yes Gray, this is my daughter. Her name is Ultear. She was born with too much magic, so I sent her to some doctors in the hopes that they could help her get better, but they told me she died.” She said.

Ultear buried her face into her mother’s chest and sniffled, saying “Those men were bad, they hurt me, did terrible things on me.”

“It’s ok Ultear,” Ur said, “I will never let anyone hurt you, ever again.”

And so life went on. Ultear returned to her mother’s home and trained with her mother’s pupils in Ice Make magic. She was actually advancing very well, and had managed to catch up to her adopted brothers before anything happened that pulled them out of their daily lives.

They were leaving town, having gotten supplies when it happened. They passed a pair of travelers, who happened to be hear their conversation.

“Oh yeah, did you hear about Deliora. I heard it moved to the Northern Continent. It’s somewhere around Burago.” Said one

“For Real? Does that mean Isbin is at peace once again!?” said the other.

Upon hearing this, Gray stopped walking, his pain and rage pouring forth, he turned toward them.

“Where’s Brago! How do I get there?!”

He was immediately frozen from the neck down in a ball of ice by Ultear.

“You’re not going; you’ll get yourself killed.” Was all Ultear in explanation as she began to roll her adopted brother home.

“He killed my parents! I have to fight him!” Gray yelled.

“I know you hate him, but Deliora is on a different level than any of us,” she said calmly. “Even together I doubt that we could last ten minutes.”

“Let me out Ultear!” said Gray.

“If you can’t free yourself from a little girl, how well do you think you’ll do against Deliora?”

“Fine!” Gray said before beginning to glow light blue. At the same time, Ultear began glowing lavender. Beyond that, nothing changed in the situation as the ice mages returned home.

A few minutes passed, and Gray said “Ultear what are you doing? This isn’t ice magic.”

Ultear looked down at her feet as she said “During my time with the bad doctors, they were experimenting on the kids they had. They were putting special lacrima into their bodies and seeing what would happen. They put one they claimed to be a ‘Time Arc’ lacrima in my chest, and ever since I’ve been able to change time. I can make things age faster, or return to a way they had been in previously, stuff like that. I used this magic to keep you from melting the ice by ageing the ice backwards slowly.”

Ultear’s fellow ice mages just stared at her for a moment when she said this, and for a moment there was silence, save for the sound of Gray’s icy binding rolling across the dirt path that lead to their home.

This silence was only ended when Ur said “Remind me when we’re back in town to look for books on this ‘Time Arc’ magic. If Ultear has it, I want her to be able to use it and understand it.”

“Yeah, from what I know about it, it sounds like the most powerful type of magic ever,” said Gray, still in his ice ball.  
“Depending on what it can do it sounds like the most terrifying magic ever created,” said Lyon, “If you go back in time and change one little thing, a completely different chain of events might occur, and not always the one you want.”

“I’ve tried to do that and prevent me from going to those doctors,” said Ultear, “Either I’m not skilled enough with Time Arc, or it just can’t be done.”

“But then we have another problem,” said Lyon, “If you go back to prevent something from happening, you no longer have a reason to go back and change the past, so you wouldn’t, so the event would occur, and so on and so on, with time just twisting and changing who knows how many times. For all we know, doing that would have ended time as we know it.”

“Hence why I want to get her books on Time Arc,” said Ur, “Now get inside and no talking about the end of time or stuff like that.”

And so, more time passed. Ultear began her studies in Time Arc, and while her brothers tried to learn they were not successful in even the simplest of techniques. Once again, all was normal, until the night of July 5th, 777.

The Ice mages were asleep when it happened. A giant cube of stone and water floated above them in the sky. Silent as a ghost, a cloaked figure fell to the ground. A beam of light came from his feet moments before he impacted with the snow. This gave him a landing that only sounded as if he had walked onto the snow normally. The man walked over to the sleeping cottage, was enveloped in light, and vanished.

Moments later, the man opened the door from the inside, now carrying an unconscious woman in his arms. He was once again enveloped in energy, and a bolt of light went up from where he was standing to the surface of the cube floating above.

The next day, July 6th, 777, The ice mages awoke to their master having vanished. All that was left was a note on the kitchen counter. Lyon, the only one of the three that was emotionally stable enough to read the note, did so.

“Everyone,” He read, “I have to go on a trip for some time, and I am probably not going to return. I’m still alive though, so don’t worry about that. I don’t expect you to understand why, just know that if I didn’t leave when I did, at least one, if not all, of you would have been hurt, if not worse. Now go, discover the world. Maybe join a guild. I hear there’s a strong one in Magnolia. Fairy Tale or something. And Ultear, take care of the boys for me, would you? Love, Mom.”

By the time he finished, every one of them was crying their eyes out.

When they stopped, they set out to Magnolia. They all made a silent vow to find their mother, if it was the last thing they did.


	3. One key

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The last pieces I'm changing in this story are finally falling into place. Lyalla gets the Aquarius key in time, and the soulmate clocks are explained.  
> But just like last time, somethings in character backgrounds are constants.

That night near dawn, half way across the continent from where Ur’s students had made their vow, the last two adult members, one man and one woman, of an ancient family of powerful wizards stood atop a mountain.

The man, a wealthy business man of a rectangular build and face, checked his pocket watch.

“Any time you’re ready,” he said.

“I still think that we should have brought some servants,” Layla, the spitting image of her ancestor Anna, said as she pulled out her key ring. She was thankful that the letter she had sent to her childhood friend and arrived in time. Any latter and she might not have received the last of the golden keys.

“Yes, but if we had, we’d have to explain our family ties to Zeref and the Alvarez Empire,” said the man.

“Some of their families have served the Heartfilias for long enough that they might already have some idea,” said Layla.

“Yes, but you know how big of a gossip mill out house is. You let one thing slip in the middle of the night standing on the terrace and before dawn half the maids will have heard.”

“True, now stand back, I’m about to open the gates.” Layla said, holding out the ring of golden keys. “Open oh Eclipse Gates, I welcome these children cast adrift in time three hundred years, ZODIAC!”

There was a blinding flash of light as thirteen spirits appeared before her, flew up, and pried the Eclipse Gate open. Through the gate came five steams of light. The light landed on the ground as it began to take physical form. After a moment, the children of the dragons were sitting on the ground.

One of them, the boy with long dark hair muttered something as he dried his tears. His face drained of all emotion as he stood and walked over to the two adults.

“Where are we,” the boy said in a monotone voice that seemed to ring like metal.

“Err-were on the side of mount Eclipse,” said the man, “The same mountain that you were on when you went through the Eclipse Gates. My name is Jude Heartfillia, descendant of-” 

“Anna, yes I know that much, you smell to much like her to not be,” the boy interrupted in that unnervingly iron voice. “I imagine that if what we were told before we were sucked in here is true then today’s date is July 7th, 777. If this is true, then you, Anna’s descendants, would likely have something resembling shelter for me and my fellow dragon slayers.”

“Yes, we do,” the woman said, “My name is Layla, may I ask your name?”  
“Gajeel Redfox,” was the only response they got as the boy with a voice like iron turned around and picked up the other dark haired one, as well as the blue haired girl.

“How far is it?” he asked.

“Just a moment,” Jude said as he and Layla began to console the still crying children. Once they had stopped crying enough to walk, they went down from the mountain.

As the group made their way down, the dragon slayers saw the biggest house any of them had ever seen. It had three floors, based on how many rows of windows they could see, as well as both an east and west wing. Surrounding it was a garden full of topiaries and blooming flowers that went all the way to the horizon. Never before had they seen such a display of wealth.

Seeing the children’s faces, Jude told them “That is our home, the Heartfillia manor. Feel free to stay for as long as you’d like, but first, I think baths are in order.”

Gajeel cocked his head and looked at the man before asking in his iron like voice “Baths? I don’t know what those are. Could you please explain?”

At this, Jude just laughed a warm laugh and said nothing. Gajeel soon learned what a bath was, and actually took very well to it.

After baths, the dragon slayers were given their own rooms close to one another, in case they ever wanted to talk each other. It wasn’t long before all of them were sound asleep. All of them that is, except Gajeel. He stayed awake a longer, and only when he was sure that all of the others were asleep did he do anything.

He released the spell he had cast on himself once all was quiet, and felt the emotion wash over him. Everything he had ever felt from the moment he had cast ‘Heart of the Iron Dragon’ up to that moment hit him with the force of a train. He bent over in pain it hit him so hard. After he could stand, he doubted for a moment if it was worth it, not feeling all that sorrow for that long, only to feel it all at once not even an hour later. This moment was a brief one, as Wendy had come in.

“Gajeel,” she said rubbing her eyes, “I heard you shout. Are you ok?”

“Yeah, yeah, sorry for waking you,” he said, his voice returned to the scraggly prepubescent voice he had had before going through the Eclipse gate.

“Why did your voice change?” she asked.

“Uh,” Gajeel scrambled for a moment. He couldn’t let her know that he had shut off his emotions to make it seem as if he was still a functional person. He had shut them off specifically so that she and the other dragon slayers had someone strong to cling to. Finally, after what felt like an eternity of stammering and stalling for time, he managed to come up with something that seemed that it would be appropriate. “I think there was just something in the air. Screwed with my lungs, or something. Maybe it was something with the gates, I don’t know.”

Wendy just smiled innocently and left to go back to bed. Gajeel flopped onto his own, sighed, and was asleep before he even realized it.

After a few short hours, dawn broke and the dragon slayers were woken by the Heartfilias servants.

“Get up every one!” called the maid, a square faced woman by the name of Spetto, “It’s almost time for breakfast!”

“Ugh,” groaned Natsu as he crawled out of bed, “Let me sleep in, I’m to tired.”

“No young man,” said Spetto, “You need to eat you are a growing boy. Besides, the masters of the house wish to meet with all of you.”

It was slow going, but eventually all of the children were dressed and ready to eat. Jude Heartfillia sat at the head of the table alone, a large display of delicious looking breakfast foods of all types was set out on the table before him. Wordlessly, the children sat and began to eat. It was a better food then they had ever had, but the memories of the night before made it taste like ash in their mouths. Eventually, Jude broke the silence by clearing his thought, then saying “Since you were transported so far into the future, I can’t in good conscience let you go without giving you some form of education on how the world has changed in the past three-hundred years.”

“Shortly after you were sent into the future,” he continued, “the Alvarez empire was founded across the sea when the wizard guild there banded together and began to govern themselves. They began to encroach on other countries and gain more territory.

“Nothing of significance to your lives occurred for the next few decades, until we entered into a technological revolution, were we discovered how to store magic into gems, creating lacrima, which we could latter draw out. This lead to many new types of magic, as well as technologies that let those who could not use magic to perform actions with ease that just a few short years prior were either impossible or nearly so.”

“The industrial revolution ended in 690 at the end of the second trade war, after which mages guilds were banned from mercenary work. Seven years later, the amount of magic that existed in the world began to increase for no known reason. It was around this time that the Alverez empire managed to spread all across their continent and set their eyes on Fiore, the country we now live in. They have yet to take any territory, but they have invaded three times already. It was also around this time that for whatever reason, probably due to the increase in the amount of magic in the air, that people developed these,” he held up his arm and rolled his sleeve up, showing a golden cursive script that read ‘Layla’.

“For the past seventy years, all sentient life on the planet has had a timer on their wrists. These timers tick down every moment of every day, until one day they hit zero. When that happens, the person has just met their soulmates, the person they are destined to be with, and the timer changes to be the cursive writing of the other person’s name the same color as their hair. Not much is known about the timers, as they are a very new development, but what is known is that a person can have multiple soulmates, in the event that a person outlives their soulmate the name or timer will dim, and that no matter the circumstances, when the timer hits zero, a person will always meet their soulmate. In some studies, people have actually been locked in rooms only to have their soulmates defy the laws of the world to meet them, such as teleporting into an area that magic cannot be teleported to, or open a locked door. How this is done is unknown, but many believe it to be fate.”

Before the dragon slayers could look at their wrists, the door to the dining room opened and through it came a little girl about the same age as Natsu and Gajeel. She had long blonde hair and was wearing a simple pink dress that went down to her ankles.

“Daddy!” she called as she ran up to Jude, “Mommy said she’d take me to the village to meet my soulmate, but she’s sick and can’t go! We need to hurry! Only one minute left!” she pointed to her left wrist and showed her father.

Jude gestured to Natsu, saying “Could you come here?” as he fought to not smile. As the fire slayer approached, he looked at his wrist.

“Is your name Lucy?” he said.

The girl looked down at her wrist. “Natsu? As in the fire dragon slayer?”

“Yes,” said Natsu and Wendy squealed in glee.

“So the dragon slayers are here!” said Lucy.

“Lucy I told you that they’d get here last night,” Jude said, “Now, you mentioned that mommy was sick?”

Lucy nodded, the said “Bero said it was, uh, MDS, I think.”

“In that case,” said Jude as he stood to leave, “I should go check on her.” With that he left the room.

“So is it true that you were raised by a dragon?” asked Lucy, which Natsu replied saying “We have had a very emotional day, I would not like to talk about our families for a little while, ok?”

“O-ok,” Lucy stammered, “How long do the rest of you have?”

“We don’t know how to read these,” said Gajeel, “We just got these.”

“Oh, sorry, I can help,” Lucy said, “Show me them.”  
On Wendy’s right wrist was 13:11:3:3:7:30 in blue that matched her hair, while on Gajeel’s was 8:1:1:6:12 black as his hair. Lucy pointed to each number saying “Thirteen years, eleven months, three weeks, three days, seven hours, thirty minutes.” to Wendy, and “Eight months, one week, one day, six hours, twelve minutes.” to Gajeel.

“Once a number hits zero,” Lucy explained, “it disappears. Now you two, Sting and Rouge, show me your timers, I’ll tell you how long.”

“No, no,” said Sting as he pushed his right arm into his chest, “I can read it just fine. Thank you though.”

“Yeah,” said Rouge as he sweat bullets, “Now that you’ve told us the zeros go away we can read them just fine.”

All it took was one look from Gajeel to break them both.

“H-here!” Sting shouted as he almost slammed his right arm onto the table.

“Fine!” said Rouge, putting his left wrist out in front of him for the others to see.

On each of their wrists, written in cursive script the same color as the other boy’s hair, was the other boys name. neither one of them could look each other in the eye, and instead just looked away, their faces turning more and more red until they gave Igneel a run for his money.

“You guys know that you both are perfect for each other right?” Lucy said as Wendy squealed, “Otherwise you wouldn’t be soulmates. You don’t have to be so nervous about it.”

“They knew each other before now,” Natsu explained, “They’re going to be a little nervous.”

At that moment, Spetto came running in.

“Miss Lucy, come quickly!” she yelled between breaths, “Your mother is much more ill then we thought!” the maid grabbed Lucy’s wrist and pulled her out of the room. The dragon slayers gave suit.

When they arrived in Layla’s room, Jude and much of the family’s servants were surrounding the bed. Lucy grabbed Natsu’s wrist and went to the front.

“Mommy what’s wrong?”

“When I opened Eclipse,” Layla said, her voice strained, “I used to much magic. I thought I could handle it, but I was wrong. I’m sorry. I have Magic Deficiency Syndrome. Without a way to replenish my magic, I’m afraid I won’t make it.”

“Wendy!” Natsu yelled, “Do you know how to replenish magic!?”

“N-no,” Wendy said, tears welling up in her eyes, “I’m sorry. I can’t.”

“It’s alright child,” Layla said as she put her hand on Wendy’s shoulder, “It’s not your fault. Don’t ever let anyone tell you different.” She turned to Natsu, placing her hand now on his cheek. “So you’re my daughter’s soulmate? Take care of her for me, will you? Take care of Lucy for me.” And with that, Layla’s hand fell from Natsu’s cheek. She was gone.

The dragon slayers didn’t stay long after that. They couldn’t handle the looks the help were giving them, and so they learned enough to get by in the world they had stumbled into, then left for the nearest town with a wizard’s guild, Magnolia. Before they left, Natsu told Lucy that he’d visit, but when she was older she should join their guild.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the long chapter guys. I just about doubled the word count on this fic.  
> Also, really bad death scene. Feel free to tell me how to make it better. I am not good at these things. Or in switching tones.


	4. One hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Ultear not a member of Grilmore Heart, the rebellion at Tower of Heaven goes perfectly, and afterwards the children begin wandering around the country, occasionally sneaking into a town and stealing food, like they have tonight, at the town Magnolia.

It happened one cloudy night. Normally a night such as that would be reserved for events of ill intent and consequence, but on this night, an event that, while of ill intent, would lead to the improvement of countless lives.

Simon and Erik, one a muscular boy with dark hair, the other lean with maroon hair, were walking around a large building on a hill in the town of Magnolia. They had been on the run for almost a year now, after Simon and one of his soulmates, Erza, lead a rebellion against a cult to the dark wizard Zeref after they developed magic. During the rebellion, they came across a secret department, where the leader of the cult was doing experiments on some of the children, giving them powerful magic. Simon sent a bolt of shadows through the man and freed the children. Ever since they’ve been traveling, Simon’s group and Erik’s, wondering from place to place with no real purpose. They would occasionally find a town, like they had now, and look for food. This had happened a few times already, so the group already had a system down.

Simon and Erik would find a building that was either unoccupied or all the residents were asleep, where Erik would then climb up to one of the windows, Simon trailing behind him. Once he reached the window they were going to use to make their entry, Erik would use his Poison Dragon’s Scales to grow claws that he would use to pry the window open slightly, which would enable Simon, who would have caught up by this point, to use Shadow Step to turn into a shadow and phase through the darkness and enter the building undetected. Once Simon was inside, he would return to his true form and use his telepathy to keep contact with Erik, who would make his way down to the bottom of the building and relay any information his enhanced hearing could gather.

Everything was going fine, but of course this was where things started to turn south.

Normally, Erik would be able to navigate Simon to the kitchen or where ever it was that the food was located. In this case, however, a young boy managed to sneak his way up to Simon undetected by either.

The boy in question caught up to Simon before he had even made it to the kitchen. “What are you doing?” they asked.

In a panic, Simon used Shadow Step again and fled through the building. The boy also appeared to use a similar magic and gave chase. Simon may have had a few seconds head start on the boy, but all that did was postpone the inevitable by not even a full second. The boy was on him immediately and somehow managed to strike Simon while still in his shadow.

Simon was immediately forced out of his shadow and began to run with his own feet. This was a mistake, as the noise he made when fleeing woke the other dragon slayers, who quickly joined the hunt for the intruder. In a flash, Simon was struck in the head and was knocked unconscious.

Erik, having heard the scuffle from outside, began to run back to where the others were staying.

“Erik!” said Sorano, a white haired girl from the experiments, “Where’s Simon?”  
“I screwed up and missed someone!” the maroon haired boy almost screamed, “He was attacked by some kids! I think they were mages!”

Jellal and Erza got up and were suddenly pinning him up against a tree. “You went into a WIZARD GUILD!” roared Erza.

“We gave you one simple rule,” said Jellal, only slightly better at keeping his anger in check, “We told you this town had a guild, and we told you not to go in. And what did you do? YOU WENT IN!” his fists were clenched and were beginning to glow. Were it not for Macbeth stepping in and pushing the two away from him, Erik would likely have been hurt, and by the time he was able to speak it may be too late to save Simon.

“Now,” said the red eyed child, “What happened?” And so Erik explained. Simon had picked out the guild himself, thinking it was just the home of a local lord. He then explained the situation in whole.

“Sorry about blaming you Erik,” apologized Jellal, “But we need to get him back.”

“I don’t think it’s a dark guild,” said Richard, an orange haired boy whose face was face had become angled like a gem by the experiments, “The town is well known for its guild, so if it was dark, the magic council would have taken care of it by now.”

“Because they did so much to help with the tower for those two years,” retorted Wally, Richard’s younger brother.

“To be fair,” pointed out Jellal, “The tower was hidden and on too small of an island to be detected unless you looked.”

“Still,” Erza said before the two could get into an argument, “Richard brings up a good point. This is an old guild with a big name. It’s not going to be a dark guild, and that means that we have some time at least.”

“So does that mean we could stay and join?” asked Milliana, the youngest of the group.

“Yeah, I don’t want to keep sleeping on the ground,” said Shu, a dark skinned blonde boy, “I want an actual bed.”

“We are looking for a specific guild,” said Macbeth. This was a conversation that was had every time the group passed a town, and Macbeth had yet to fail to convince the younger mages that it was best to keep looking for the right guild. “We’re looking for the guild that the mage that taught Erza and Simon their magic. Until we find it, we won’t stop looking. When we find it, we will stop looking and join it.”

“I hope we find it soon,” Milliana mused.

“Don’t worry, Milly, we’ll find it soon,” said Erza, “Erik, did you see the guild symbol anywhere?”

“Actually, I think I did,” said Erik as he grabbed a stick and began to draw the symbol he saw in the dirt. It resembled a helmet that they had seen when visiting Crocus, but had a bigger top and pointier bottom. When she saw the mark, Erza gasped.

“That’s it,” she said, her voice barely a whisper, “that’s the mark that was on Grandpa Rob’s back.”

“Then it’s a good thing you didn’t realize it was a guild,” Jellal half-laughed, “We’ve finally found it. Our guild.”

“Take us there.” Commanded Macbeth, “If we’re lucky and walk fast enough we’ll be sleeping on beds by sunrise.”

“Gladly,” said Erik as he started walking back to the town. When they arrived at the guild hall, they heard a loud banging sound and some yelling. The group immediately ran inside only for Simon to run out passed them.

“Guys!” he called, “What are you doing here! They’re wizards, and strong ones to. We don’t stand a chance against them!”

“We’re not here to fight,” said Erza, “This is Grandpa Rob’s guild.”

“Rob?” said a small nearly bald man in strange, almost jester like, clothes, “He wouldn’t happen to be a fire mage, would he?”

“He was,” said Sorano, “He was captured by a cult to Zeref who made him build a tower to resurrect their god. He gave his life in the slave rebellion that freed us, and for the last year we’ve been looking for the guild he came from.”

“And now you’ve found it,” said the man, “My name is Makarov, I’m the guild master here at Fairy Tail. Based on how the boy missing his left eye is a mage, I’m guessing that all of you know some magic, am I correct?”

“Yes sir,” said Sawyer, a blonde boy from the experiments who had a very large nose.

“Can we join your guild?” asked Milliana.

“Yes you may,” said Makarov, “We’ll do the paperwork tomorrow, for now you need to get some sleep.” He then lead the refugees to the infirmary. “There’s not enough beds for all of you,” he said, “so some of you will have to share."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I say that last chapter was long? I'm sorry, I meant to say that that was about the length I had been going for this whole time, but since the first two were legit written in maybe an hour or two, I didn't get the time to do that.  
> And for those wondering, yes, the guy who was messing with Oracien Seis members was in fact Brain.


	5. One Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Rajinshu take a job telling them to go take care of a demon thats ravaging a town, where they meet their soulmates.

Laxus was on his way to a job when Freed nudged him in his arm. “Get up Laxus, we’re here,” he said. The green haired man had rolled up the sleeves of his shirt to reveal his soul mate tattoos. On his left, in golden lines that matched his hair, was written Laxus, while on his right sat a green timer that now only had a few short minutes remaining.

“Where are Ever and Bickslow?” Laxus said as he stood, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

“They went ahead,” Freed said, retrieving his rapier from the loft above them, “I doubt they’re even out of the station by now.”

As the pair left the train, sure enough, their companions were waiting by the exit to the station. They left the station, Bickslow pointed to the edge of town and said “Found the demon.”

As the mages looked, a mob was assembling around one of the houses on the outskirts of town. As they approached, the mages heard the calls for burning down the home. Once they got to the home, they quickly got to the front of the crowd, and were about to enter when something happened that gave them pause. From the window came a small girl with white hair and blue eyes, and between tears she said “Can’t you leave us alone! My sister saved the church, now let her be!”

“Hey you,” said Bickslow as he walked over to the girl, “I’m from a guild, mind telling me what’s going on?”

The girl in the window wiped her eyes, then said, “A demon took over the church. At first it didn’t do much, but then it started making people go into the church with magic, where it would eat them. That was a week ago, and nobody showed up before you. Last night the monster got my sister, but instead of eating her, the demon possessed her. But she’s still good! My sister would never hurt anyone!

“Don’t worry little one,” said Freed, “We’ll do everything we can to protect your sister without hurting her. Now, if you would please let us in.”

When the door opened, Laxus glared at the crowd and began to crackle with lightning before saying “Wizards. Only.” He then slammed the door behind him so hard the room shook.

The house was a simple building. All that was in it was two rooms, one restroom, and the bedroom that they were in now. Beside the door stood the girl that had opened the door for the mages, the same one from the window, while beside one of the beds sat two children that looked to be older than her. One of these children was a stout tan boy that was dressed in a well-fitting blue suit, while the other, a girl with long hair that looked to be in her early teens, wore a tattered grey-purple cloak. Beneath it the mages could see that her left arm was longer than her right, and it was also withered like a tree branch in winter, but with large boils that seemed filled with a strange purple fluid. Freed walked over to the girl in the cloak and kneeled down before her.

“May I see it?” he asked, trying his best to smile warmly. The girl held out her hand, which Freed held and examined.

While his boyfriend was doctoring the girl, Laxus looked at his arm. His right arm still read Freed, but where a few minutes ago his left still had a timer, now…

“Which one of you ‘s named Mirajane?” he said as all heads in the room turned toward him.

“My timer just hit zero, and now my arm says Mirajane,” Laxus explained, “Now I wanna know who that is.”

“M-me,” the girl in the shroud said, her face no longer a mix of pain and sorrow, but now also shock and anguish.

Freed looked at his own wrist, then showed it to the girl whose name it now read, saying, “I promise I will be as gentle as possible, but I’m going to try and determine the cause of this.” He called over Bickslow, “Is there any way your, err, ‘telekinesis’, could determine the cause?”

“Not without my eyes,” said Bickslow as he loosened the straps on his helmet. “That means two things: everyone needs to close their eyes, and if you peak nobody’s going to like what you see. You ready?”

At that point, everyone had tightly closed their eyes, and so Bickslow removed his helmet and put it down on the floor beside him. He sat down before Mirajane and looked. He was careful not to do anything more, but what he saw was unlike anything he had seen before.

He put his helmet back on, saying “It’s ok, I’m putting it back on, you guys can open your eyes. I have good news; I have no idea what the heck is going on here. It’s something like possession, but where that’s when an invader soul takes control of a host body and either forces the host soul out or to submit. What’s going on here seems like something is forcing the demon soul to become inactive, except around your arm, which is why it looks like a diseased tree someone tried to burn. Thing is, the consciousness of the demon isn’t in there, or its been buried under everything else, which basically means the same thing.”

“And you could tell all of that with telekinesis?” asked the girl from the window, “That’s really cool!”

Bickslow smiled his maniac grin from ear to ear, and said “Ha! There’s no way a telepath could-”

“Dark Ecriture: Silence,” Freed said as dark purple runes launched from his finger and landed on the chest of the helmed mage, who, even though he continued to move his mouth, made no sound.

“Bickslow,” he said, exasperated, “Just because her sister is my soul mate doesn’t mean you get to tell her that.”

In response, Bickslow pointed first to his arm, the to the girl from the window’s. On his, were there used to be a timer, there was now, in simple white script, the name “Lisanna”, where on the girl’s there was a wild blue word, “Bickslow.”

Evergreen quickly looked at her wrist, then said to the boy in the suit “Your name’s Elfman?”

“Yes,” said the boy, pushing up his arm to expose the auburn word he could now find there, “Evergreen? Nice name.”

“Well that settles it then,” said Laxus, “We’re going to leave the town and bring Mira to gramps. He should know what to do. From there, we’ll figure it out.”

“But how are we going to get out of here?” said Elfman, “There’s no way that mob will let One-san out.”

“Elfman,” said Freed, “there’s one thing we need to get clear before we continue.” He pointed his rapier at the door, “There is no such thing as impossible, just very difficult problems.” He swung his rapier, and ruins appeared around the group.

“To save on time and money,” Laxus said, “Freed laid down teleportation runes back at his house. With those, all he needs to do is set up the other end of them and anyone within a few feet radius of him will be transported back to his room.”

“We should probably tell the townsfolk what’s happening though,” said Freed, standing up, “At this point there’s nothing they can do to stop us. I just need to say a passphrase and we’ll be back.”

“Good point,” said Bickslow, who went over to the window, then called out “The demon and her siblings are our soul mates! We’re not killing them, but you can be damn sure we’re never gonna come back to this town!” The wooden dolls that floated around Bickslow then began to chant “Damn sure! Damn sure!” before a brick came flying at him.

“I think we should go.” He said, scrambling off the bed to stand near Freed.

“Transport,” Freed said, now clutching his temples.

In an instant, the room around them began to dissolve into runes, only to reform in a completely different form after a moment. The group now stood in a clean and rather barren room with hardwood floors.

“Bickslow, would it kill you to make an exit that doesn’t get us attacked?” Freed said.

“You know circus performers don’t do subtle well,” retorted Bickslow, “Why should I be any different?”

“We should talk to that gramps guy you mentioned,” said Mira, standing up and making sure that her arm was covered by her cloak, “Where is he?”

“Not far from here,” said Freed, heading over to the door. “The guild hall is just down the street from here, and he only ever leaves it for business or to go home.”

“And even then, his house is right next to the guild.” Said Laxus

The band of mages and their soul mates made their way to the guild hall, only to be wrapped up in a barfight. After Laxus sent a bolt of lightning thought the guild, the master appeared before the group.

“Hello their dears,” said the master, “I’m Makarov, Laxus’ grandfather, and the master of Fairy Tail. Which one of you is the lucky one to get my grandson?”

“Me,” said Mira meekly, “He said that you might be know something about this?” she showed the man her arm. After being debriefed by Bickslow, the master thought for a moment, then said “That seems like Partial Take Over magic. Did the demon touch your hand at all?”

“It grabbed me by my hand, then there was a flash of light, and my arm has been like this ever since,” Mira explained.

“Yep, no question about it,” Makarov said. “That’s Take Over. We have some books that should be helpful for you in the library. If you have any problems I have complete faith in Freed to help you with it.”

“Could we learn Take Over to?” asked Lisanna.

“I don’t see why not,” Makarov said. “In most cases, if one person is gifted in a type of magic, so are all their siblings. Just don’t expect to be able to become demons; not only are they incredibly rare, they are also incredibly difficult to control. I think the number of times someone’s succeeded can, even counting your sister, be counted on one hand.”

“It’s alright,” said Elfman, “I just want to be strong enough to go on quests with One-san and the others.”

“Well,” said Freed, getting out a stamp and some papers, “In order to do that, you’ll have to join the guild. And to do that, you’ll need to fill out these forms and tell me where and what color you want your guild mark."


	6. One Team

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Exceeds! Also Levi. And Lucy comes back. And I'm saying that by this time the five slayers have earned enough between them to build a house.

It had been a month since Team Rajinshu had found the Strauss’s, and they had integrated almost seamlessly with the rest of the guild. Almost.

“You bitch!” yelled Erza, “You’re standing in my cake!”

“What you gonna do about it?” said Mira, squatting on the table that Erza was sitting at, her foot twisting on the squashed remains of a slice of strawberry cake.

“You were the one to step on her cake, Strauss,” Jellal said, his hands starting to glow, “Now apologize and get her a new piece before I do something I’m going to regret.”

“Are you threatening her?” Laxus growled, crackling with lightning, “I will kick your ass if that’s true.”

Simon and Freed sighed, then Freed said, “We’re staying out of this, alright?” before returning to their game of chess.

“That’s fine!” called the other four in unison as the girls transformed and the boys began to surge with energy. Before any of them could do anything, however, the master smashed them all with his massive fist.

“Be quiet!” he barked, “Has anyone seen the dragons? They were due back early today.”

“Have you checked their house?” said Freed, moving his knight, “Checkmate.”

“I just got back,” Makarov said, “Any other ideas?”

“How about you check the door?” said Gajeel, kicking open the door.

“Where were you!” yelled Makarov, “And where are the others!”

“We found some eggs in the woods on our way back from our job,” Gajeel explained, “There were four eggs, five dragon slayers, so I didn’t get one. The youngsters are off finding sticks to make nest for theirs, and Salamander’s off to his mates’ house to get her help parenting the egg.

“Why’d you get stiffed?” asked Bickslow, “Sting and Rouge could share one, being soulmates and all.”

“They’re six,” explained Gajeel, sitting at the bar, “I tried to get them to share, but since they’re still awkward about being soulmates, they just started to scream, which I shut down as fast as I could. Super hearing, and all.”

“And yet you let Natsu have one,” Freed jested, before getting an iron pole inches from his face.

“He only got an egg because my timer is about to go off,” Gajeel growled as he retracted his arm, staring daggers at the rune mage all the while.

“Then why are you here?!” asked Lisanna as he grabbed the iron mage and tried to pull him toward the door, “You gotta meet your soulmate in someplace romantic!”

“Says the girl who met hers while staring down an angry mob outside her window,” said Gajeel, “Actually, I take that back, that does sound badass. Anyway, if were soulmates, does it even matter how we meet?”

“Come on! You can’t meet them in the guild hall!” Lisanna grunted as she pulled pointlessly at Gajeel’s shirt to get him to come. He looked down at his timer.

“Three, two, one,” the door opened, and Gajeel looked up to see a short, blue haired girl with brown eyes. She was in a simple yellow dress and looking him dead in the eye.

“My names Gajeel, I’m your soulmate,” Gajeel called to the girl, “Can you use magic?”

“Y-yes,” said the girl as she approached the counter, “I’m Levy, a solid script mage. I came here to join the guild.”

“That’s wonderful!’ said Makarov, walking over to the girl, “Please fill out these papers,” a stack of papers appeared in his hand which he put down on the bar, “When that’s done we can get you your guild mark.”

“You want my help?” asked Gajeel.

“Not right now,” said Levy, “But I was wondering if I could stay at your place. My parents,”

“Say no more,” said Gajeel, putting up his hands, “Me and my teammates have a house out at the edge of town, you can stay there. We actually just got done adding on an addition in case that happened.” His voice trailed off for a moment, “Though we did find those eggs,” He then stood up and quickly walked to the door, before calling back “I’ll be right back, I just gotta check on something!”

Gajeel ran through town to his house in the woods. He saw Wendy climbing a tree to get some sticks, so he went up to her and called out “Hey, where are you guys putting your eggs!”

Wendy dropped down, using her magic to slow her fall, then said “Mine’s in the wood pile, but I don’t know where Sting and Rouges are. I haven’t seen Natsu, so I think he’s still at Lucy’s.

“He’ll probably be staying there until the thing hatches,” Gajeel said, “Anyway, I’ll let you get back to it. And don’t put the egg in the new edition, she’s moving in.”

“You met your soulmate!” Wendy squealed. It took him a few minutes, but Gajeel managed to explain enough about Levy to get Wendy to leave him alone. He went inside, and sure enough, the boys had put their eggs in the room Gajeel had made for Levy.

“Can’t you guys put those in your rooms?” Gajeel asked, “My soulmate’s going to be using this room soon.”

“Oh, what’re they like?” asked Sting.

“I just got done with telling Wendy this,” Gajeel said, “I’m going to go and show her to the house, you can ask her then. Just move the eggs first.”

“Ok!” said Rouge.

With that, Gajeel headed back to the guild hall. Levy had already gotten her guild mark in white on her leg, so Gajeel quickly lead her back to his house. Once they go there the other dragon slayers swarmed on her and began to ask all sorts of questions. Gajeel let this go on for a little while, but soon Levy was looking stressed, so he picked her up above his head with his only remark being “Man your light,” before he walked to her room. Once he got there, he put Levy down and opened the door before walking in.

“So,” he said, sitting down in a chair, “Now you’ve met three of my roommates. The four one’s named Natsu, he’s got pink hair and uses fire magic. He’s already met his soulmate and is staying with her for a little while he hatches a big egg we found out in the woods earlier today.”

“Giant egg?” asked Wendy, still innerved from being picked up and carried. “What did it look like?”

It was about as big as Wendy, with markings that looked like flames on the bottom. I wanna say that they were blue. The other’s all have them as well, just with different color markings. Sting’s is purple, Rouge’s green, and Wendy’s is white, with a cream shell. We don’t know what’s in them, but we’re very protective of them. Side effect of being raised by dragons and all.”

“Wait, you were raised by dragons!” Wendy said, “That’s impossible, dragons have been d-”

“We came through a probably illegal time portal,” Gajeel explained, “We came from 477, when dragons were nearly gone but not quite, and came out last June. I was raised by the last Iron dragon, Natsu the last Fire, Wendy Sky, Rouge Shadow, and Sting White. They taught us how to use their magic, then sent us into the future, and now were here. We’re still kinda adjusting. It’ll probably take us some time.”

“Can you speak draconic?” asked Levy, her eyes wide with joy.

“Besser als ich Mensch kann,” said Gajeel, “Better than I can human. If you want I can teach you. I can read it to, but not as well.”

“Please do!” said Levy, looking around, “do you have anything I can write in?” He handed her a notebook and pen and began to teach her his language.

Three months later, the eggs hatched. Out came humanoid kittens that could grow wings at will. The cats were all a single color, matching the colors of the details on their eggs. For some reason, Charlie, Wendy’s cat, seemed to be smarter than the rest, but she still was only slightly smarter than a human infant of the same age. What was interesting was that they had soulmate timers, so they knew that they were at least sentient.

“Hey, we should have the other kitties meet!” said Wendy.

“Yeah,” said Natsu, “Have all yours hatched?”

“Last one hatched a few days ago,” said Gajeel.

While Wendy and the boys went to get their cats, Levi walked in.

“Grucer,” she said, causing Lucy to look at her in confusion.

“Grucer, ich sehe Gajeel hat dich drakonisch unterrichtet,” Natsu replied.

“It’s only been three months salamander,” Gajeel explained, “She doesn’t know that much draconic.”

“Oh,” said Natsu, “Good pronunciation though.”

Just then, the other dragon slayers came back with their cats. “Come on Charlie, come meet Happy!” said Wendy, enthusiastically carrying her cat to introduce her to the blue one. When she put down the cat, the timers on both Charlie and Happy hit zero, changing to the other’s name.

Wendy squealed, “Charlie’s found her soulmate already!”

“Now can I keep him?” asked Natsu.

“Why wouldn’t you?” asked Sting.

“I don’t want to put our son in danger,” explained Lucy, “and if I let Happy stay with Natsu, I’m afraid he’ll go on a job and bring Happy. Now that his timer has gone off on Charlie, I guess I’ll let him stay with Natsu, but first I need to check with my daddy on something. Natsu, can I get your help with something back home?”

“What?” asked Natsu

“I’ve got contracts with most of my mom’s spirits now,” Lucy explained, “And if you’re with me I think I can handle some of the wizard jobs. I want my daddy to let me join fairy tail.”


	7. One Fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Ice Age, the children of Ur, are on a job for the mayor of a town in the north. Lyon is stressed because his timer will go off later that day.

“Hi, we’re here about the job you sent out to the wizard guilds,” said Ultear, standing outside the gate to the very town she had revealed her Time Arc with the rest of team Ice Age, Gray and Lyon.

“Alright, hurry up and get in here then,” said the guard as the gate opened, “The mayor’s waiting.”

The trio headed to town hall, where they found the mayor to be a short, portly man with a mustache that looked to be coming out of his nose. “Oh thank god!” he said, “What I’m about to tell you does not leave this room, do you understand? I’m the head of the local mafia and according to my family members Grilmore Heart is heading here so that they can find something to revive Zeref. They’ll be here sometime today, I’ll cover for you and give you anything you want, just don’t let them destroy the city, I don’t care what you have to do.”

“Wait what?!” yelled Gray.

“And the same day I meet my soulmate,” muttered Lyon.

“Hold on,” said Ultear, “How do we know you aren’t lying?”

As if on que, as soon as she said that, a pillar of black flames erupted from the gates to the city behind a window.

“Well that answers that,” said Ultear, “Sorry about this, but this is the fastest way there.” She then used time arc to turn the wall into sand.

“Ice Make: Floor! Ice Make: Skates!” said Gray, making first an ice path from the opening to the gates, then ice skates, made from ice, sprout from the trio’s shoes. They skated to the fire as fast as they could and soon made it back to the gates.

“Looks like we got ourselves some light mages!” laughed a man with long blonde hair, “Let’s give ‘em a warm welcome!” He then blasted them with a torrent of black flames. Ultear thrust out her hand, which was glowing lavender, and the flames disappeared.

“What!” yelled the man, “What are you doing!?”

“Time magic asshole!” yelled Ultear as she jumped down from the ice floor and kicked the man, while still wearing ice skates, in the face.

The man stumbled back, laughing. “Bad move bitch,” he laughed, clutching his now broken nose, “I’m not the only kin of purgatory here.”

“Bleve,” said a voice. An explosion erupted from the ground beneath Ultear, sending her flying into the sky.

“Ultear!” yelled Gray and Lyon.

“Whew,” the blonde man sighed, “She got some good air.”

“Wait for it,” said a dark-skinned man, emerging from a blade of grass that was underneath of where Ultear was standing a moment prior. Suddenly, a series of smaller explosions then went off in the air around Ultear and the men. The explosions sent Ultear flying into the air even further, while the blonde man sucked them out of the air. “There it is,” said the dark-skinned man, smiling.

Gray looked down upon the two dark mages and, through gritted teeth, “Lyon, you get Ultear. I’ll deal with these two.”

“Good luck,” nodded Lyon, summoning a large ice bird, his face a wall of concern as he flew off.

“I’ll need it,’ said gray as he jumped down from the ice floor. “Ice Make: Lance!” he yelled, and dozens of spears of ice erupted from his hands. The men quickly dodged out of the way, but the spears buried themselves deep into the ground. Gray slid down the spears and landed on the ground just in time for the blonde man to send black flames at him.

“Ice Make: Shield!” yelled Gray. The flames were slowed slightly by the wall of ice, but that was all Gray needed to dodge out of the way. “Ice Make: Floor!” Gray yelled, covering the floor in ice. Black flames immediately sprang forth from the blonde man, melting the ground around him. Likewise, the dark-skinned man kneeled down and touched the ground, causing many thick vines to erupt from the ground. These vines wrapped themselves around Gray, who quickly froze them, then had frost spikes come out from the vines. These frost spears were quickly nullified by the dark-skinned man’s explosions and the blonde man’s fire.

“Give it up kid,” laughed the blonde man, “There’s nothing you can do. Anything you can freeze I can melt and Azuma can explode. Just give up and die.”

“Fat chance,” Gray yelled, breaking through the frozen vines, “Ice Make: Hammer!”

A large hammer made of ice appeared above the blonde man. In the split second before it impacted, the man melted it. “See? What did I tell you?” the man boasted, and was immediately drenched in water.

“Ha!” laughed Gray, pointing both hands at the blonde man, “Ice Make: Flash Freeze!” The blonde man was then frozen in a massive block of ice. “Now it’s just you and-” began Gray before getting a fist shaped tree to the stomach, launching him backwards.

“You best not have killed him!” yelled the dark-skinned man, who’s fist was extended toward Gray, as if he had just punched him.

Gray tried to get up, but a sapling sprouted inches from his face and instantly exploded, breaking his nose and blinding him. He felt that he was stomped on in the back, causing him to gasp in pain, but before a second kick could land, he felt the cold rush of wind and managed to hear the muffled song of Lyon’s Ice Eagles over the ringing in his ears the explosion had caused. At this point, Gray’s vision was returning slightly, and he could see the vague outline of a person going over to him.

With the aid of this person, Gray managed to stand. At this point, he could determine that it was Lyon, and that Ultear was lying near the blonde man’s frozen form, and she appeared to be covered in ice herself. The dark-skinned man managed to come closer to the pair, but was repelled when Lyon created a large dragon out of the snow and ice around them, as well as some of his own.

While the dark-skinned man managed to do significant damage to the dragon with his explosions, as well as slow the beast down by creating trees that would block it’s path, in the end, it was futile. The battle dragged on into the night, and Gray and Lyon would have to switch out controlling the beast every so often, but eventually the now much smaller ice dragon managed to wear the man down until he had exhausted his reserves of magic and fell down, too tired to move, but still very much alive.

The city guards arrived and arrested the two criminals, binding them in anti-magic cuffs. They then brought the trio to the hospital, where Gray and Ultear were healed. Lyon was waiting outside their room when a doctor walked up to him.

“They’re going to be just fine,” she said, “They’ll be ready to be released tomorrow morning.”

“Thank you,” Lyon said, rolling up his sleeve to look at his timer. Forty-five minutes. Lyon decided to go for a walk to clear his head.

 

The next morning Ice Age checked out of the hospital. Lyon lead them to where he had met his soulmate the night before, and along the way Ultear pried for details “So what’s their name?”

“Her name’s Meredy,” Lyon answered, walking faster than normal.

“How’d you meet?”

“Late last night while you guys were asleep I went for a walk to clear my head. I came up on the church we’re headed to, and she was standing outside.”

“What she look like?”

“She’s got pink hair and green eyes. Last night she was wearing a sweater and earmuffs.”

“How old is she?”

Lyon started sprinting.

“What the fuck man!” yelled Gray, running after him, “Ultear’s hurt, she can’t run!”

Lyon just continued on in silence, sprinting all the way to the church. When Gray caught up, he was standing out front with a pink haired little girl in a sweater who was holding a suitcase, his face the same shade as her earmuffs.

“What the hell Lyon,” yelled Gray, “What was that for?”

Lyon looked away from Gray, saying “Meredy, this is my brother Gray.”

“You don’t look like Lyon’s brother,” said the girl, “Are you adopted?”

Gray’s eyes darted beck and forth between Lyon and Meredy as he said “Wait, are you, no, that can’t be right, but then, wait, are you?”

“Yes, Gray,” said Lyon, still refusing to look his brother or soulmate in the eye, “This girl barely half my age is my soulmate. I’m just hoping that it’s platonic. Anyway, let’s go find Ultear so she can yell at me and we can leave.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter Lyon is 16, while Meredy is 8. Just thought I should clear that up. So how’d you guys like my first ever fight scene? I know, it kinda sucked after Gray beat Zancrow, but hey, it was my first attempt.


	8. One Beast

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Rajinshu, who now includes the Strausses, go on a job to fight a monster known as The Beast.  
> Lets see how this goes! :)

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” commented Elfman as he climbed up a mountain alongside his teammates, the Rajinshu.

“Oh come on,” exclaimed Mira, in her Satan soul form, which she was using to fly up the mountain, “It’s just a monster hunt, nothing we can’t handle.”

“Don’t get cocky now,” said Freed, flying besides his wife, “This beast is still an S-class quest.”

“And we’ve got two S-classes with us,” pointed out Bickslow, flying besides them on his babies, “And the rest of us have been on S-class jobs before.”

“Would you please be quiet!?” yelled Laxus, climbing the mountain a head of Elfman, “Not all of us can fly, and this is very rough--” He was interrupted by Mira picking him up and throwing him up the mountain.

“I’m gonna go make sure he’s ok,” sighed Freed, “Don’t let her do that to Elfman.”

“He’s fine,” said Mira.

A loud roar came bellowing out from the top of the mountain, followed by blasts of lightning.

“FUCK!” yelled Laxus, “It’s here!”

“Elfman!” yelled Mira, grabbing her brother by the color of his shirt, “Stone bull!” she threw him up the mountain then flew after him.

While he flew, Elfman yelled “Beast Soul: Stone Bull!” and turned into an earthenware minotaur moments before landing. “Damn I’m glad I got this form.”

“Less talking more punching!” called Laxus, before shouting “Lightning Dragon’s Breakdown Fist!” and sending an electric fist hurtling toward The Beast, a massive humanoid creature with green scales on it’s head, neck, and torso, the rest of it’s body covered in Maroon fur, save it’s large yellow horns and feet. The Beast slid backwards slightly from the attack, but it did not seem to do any damage.

Elfman lowered his head and charged at the Beast, but was sent into a wall with a swipe of the beast’s claw. Were it not for his transformation, he would surely have broken something, but as it was, he was merely buried underneath rubble.

“Fairy Machine Gun: Leprechaun!” called Evergreen as she flew over the crest of the mountain, sending a wave of magic needles out at The Beast, which did little more than draw it’s attention to her. It leapt up into the air and tried to swat her down, but Bickslow blasted the thing’s hand, letting her dodge.  
As The Beast jumped, it fell down the side of the mountain, tearing deep ruts into it as it slide down the cliff face. It picked up a boulder and threw it up at the mages, which Mira sent a shadow blast at, breaking it into small pieces, which Bickslow quickly turned to sand. Lisanna used her cat soul to jump up and claw at the beast’s eye, but if the beast was hurt, it gave no indication.  
It went to smack her, but she got out of the way, and so it just hit itself. No enraged, The Beast leapt up onto the top of the mountain again, where it was greeted by one of Laxus’ Heavenward Halberds hitting it in the face, this time managing to stun it for a moment.

When the Beast landed, it sent a shockwave through the ground, knocking Laxus to the ground and shifting the rubble that covered Elfman enough that his arm was freed. Elfman could move enough that he began to dig himself out, but not before Freed sent a Dark Écriture: Pain at The Beast. It gave out a howl of pain that deafened all of the Rajinshu, save Elfman, as he was still beneath the rubble.

As Elfman managed to climb out, he yelled “Beast Soul: Iron Bull!” and turned into a mechanical minotaur, then charged The Beast again. This time, as The Beast was writhing in pain, he managed to connect, and actually managed to do significant damage, actually drawing blood from the creature from where Elfman’s horns dug into it’s flesh.

Taking this opportunity, Elfman wrapped his arms around The Beast’s torso and lifted it up, before bending over backwards and smashing it’s head into the ground behind him. At this point he said “Take Over,” and both he and the beast began to glow a pale-yellow color. The Beast was quickly absorbed into Elfman’s body before he fell over onto his back. Due to the nature of Take Over Magic, Elfman quickly transformed into The Beast, this time with a short white beard and long white hair.

By this time, the rest of the Rajinshu had begun to regain their hearing, save for Laxus and Lisanna, who was in her cat form at the time, so they had much stronger hearing than the others. They all gathered at the top of the hill and watched as Elfman stood up.

“Elfman, are you alright!” yelled Evergreen, barely able to hear her own voice. Elfman quickly turned his head to where she was standing and roared, before running up to them. Startled, Evergreen reflexively removed her glasses and looked at Elfman’s eyes, turning him to stone mere moments before he could swipe at her with his now massive claws.

Now thoroughly exhausted, the group rested where they stood, despite a town being at the foot of the mountain they were on. The next day, everyone had managed to regain their hearing and they were just about to leave when Evergreen unfroze her husband.

Elfman finished his swing, then looked around confused and disoriented, before seeing his team mates and family, who he charged at. Luckily, Freed had planned for that, and had put a rune trap around him, stopping him in his tracks.

“He can’t escape until he calms down,” explained Freed, “We can collect the reward while he just blows of steam in there. I assume Ever, and Lisanna will be staying?”

“Yeah,” said Evergreen and Lisanna.

“If Lisanna is staying so am I,” said Bickslow, “No offense Freed, but there is a slim chance he can escape and rampage. I’m not letting Lisanna get hurt.”

“I’m also stay behind,” said Laxus, “I can’t fly, I’d only slow you down, and if you’re gonna head back up there’s no point.”

“Fair enough,” said Freed, shrugging before flying down the mountain with Mira.

“We’ll be back as soon as we can!” She called as they left.

Shortly after, Elfman had used up all of his magic power trying to break down the rune wall, to no avail, so he turned back to his human form, exhausted and bruised from his fight against The Beast, and laid down to take a nap. About half an hour later, Freed and Mira returned, large sacks of money in tow.

“Sorry it took so long,” Mira said, “The village had evacuated and it took us forever to find them.”

“Yeah,” said Laxus, sarcasm dripping from his voice, “And that’s _all_ that kept you.”

Freed’s face turned a deep red as he hastily began to put down the runes that would let them teleport back to their home in Magnolia.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, sorry about the delay guys, I just don’t feel right posting anything serious on April first, for foolish reasons. In other news, I am done with the past time! Woo! Next time we’re going to actually pick up where the manga started. That means that from now on, the chapter titles aren’t going to follow the formula of ‘One X’. admittedly, that only started because the first three were named after the title, and next one I was too lazy to actually name, and after that it just sorta stuck.


	9. The Dragon's Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Natsu and Lucy's annaversary, and to celebrate, they're going to Hargeron town. There they come across a man calling himself Salamander.

“E-excuse me,” said the conductor, “Is he alright?”

“Oh, he’s fine” said Lucy, her husband slouched over in his seat, “He gets motion sickness very easily.”

“I am never using a train ever again,” Natsu said before vomiting out the window.

“Alright, we need to get off, the train will be leaving soon.”

“Ugh, just give me a minute to rest.”

“Alright.”

Suddenly, the train started moving.

“God damn it,” muttered Lucy as she tried to keep her husband from vomiting on her.

When they finally got to the next station, the pair of wizards got on another train that brought them back to the town.

“Sorry about that,” said Natsu, still reeling slightly from the second train ride.

“It’s fine,” said Lucy, having changed into some clothes Virgo had brought her, since her other clothes were now covered in vomit, “You’ve done worse things on our dates.”

“I set the house on fire one time,” said Natsu.

Lucy laughed, then saw a large gathering of people outside a building that looked to be a church.

“Natsu, can you tell what’s going on over there?”

“It’s a bunch of girls ogling over some guy,” he said, “They’re calling him Salamander.”

“What? Isn’t that your nickname?”

“Yeah, but not a lot of people use it. Still, I wanna check it out,” Natsu said before taking hold of Lucy’s hand and walking toward the crowd.

There, standing in the middle of the crowd, was a blue haired man with a tattoo above his brow, who called out to the crowd “Hello, my adoring fans, I apologize, but I have matters that I must attend to at the harbor,” he snapped his fingers and a pillar of purple fire erupted up, which he hopped onto and rode away, saying “There’s going to be a party on my yacht tonight, I hope you all attend.”

“Well that answered all my questions,” sighed Natsu, “Guess we’ll never know.”

“If it means so much to you,” said Lucy, “We could always go to that party.”

“It’s on a boat!” said Natsu, “There is no way I’m going.”

“Alright,” shrugged Lucy, “Well, I’m hungry, let’s get something to eat.”

“Yeah, I’m starving.”

The pair went into a nearby restaurant and had lunch. Natsu was gorging himself on most of the menu, while Lucy was having a salad.

“Natsu, we’re in public, I know you were raised in a cave, but you can still use some manners,” chastised Lucy. 

“Sorry,” said Natsu, only slowing slightly. Lucy sighed.

“Hey, that Salamander guy, did he seem to be charming at all?”

“Not really, why?”

“Well, he had a lot of girls all around him, and I didn’t notice a single one of their timers that had run out. I’m worried that he was using a charm to make them like him.”

“Aren’t those illegal?”

“Yeah, have been for years now.”

“Do you think there’s a reward for--”

“Don’t even think about it,” said Lucy, looking him dead in the eye. “If you fight him, half the city will be destroyed. I don’t want this date to end with us running from the town guards.”

“Alright.”

“Ok,” Lucy said, paying for the meal, “Now I saw a magic shop on the way in, I wanna go check it out.”

The pair made their way to the shop, where they found a key for Canis Minor.

“How much for this key?” asked Natsu.

“Twenty-thousand jewel,” replied the shop keeper.

“No, seriously, how much?” replied Natsu.

“Twenty-thousand jewel, like I said.”

Lucy walked up to the counter and leaned down, giving the man a generous view of her cleavage, before saying “How much do you mean, really? You wonderful man,” her chest swaying slightly as she spoke.

The shop keeper’s nose began bleeding as he said “Nineteen-thousand jewel.”

“Alright,” said Lucy, pulling out the money, “That seems fair.”

Later, the pair were sitting on a bench in the park.

“Tsk, he only went down a thousand jewel,” complained Lucy as she snuggled with Natsu, “Is my sex appeal only worth a thousand jewel?”

“No way,” said Natsu, “It’s defiantly worth more than that. He stiffed you.”

“I completely agree,” said a voice behind them.

“WAAAA!” screamed Lucy, while Natsu bolted up and lit his hands on fire as he turned to the voice.  
“Woah there,” said Salamander, standing in the bush behind the bench the couple had been sitting on, “I didn’t mean to startle you, I just came by to make sure that a beauty as this girl would be attending my party this evening.”

“Like hell I am,” said Lucy, standing up to leave, “I know about the charm spell. Disgusting. Consider yourself lucky we don’t call the police.”

“Fine, but how would you like to join my guild?”

Lucy put her hand on Natsu’s arm, then said, “Which guild?”

“You’ve never heard of Salamander of Fairy Tail?”

“Yes we have,” said Lucy, taking her arm off Natsu.

“I _am_ Salamander of Fairy Tail,” said Natsu as he lit his hands on fire and began hitting the imposter, sending him flying backwards several feet, “Nobody gets to slander Fairy Tail’s name.”

“Heh!! Stop with the stupid speeches, you little brat!!!!” yelled the man as he sent flames hurtling toward the couple. Natsu quickly pushed Lucy out of the way of the flames, letting him get engulfed in them.

As a smirk spread across the man’s face, Natsu said “Eugh, these are bad! I’ve never eaten fire this bad before.”

“Huh?!!!” grunted the man in shock at the sight of a man eating flames. “What the hell is this guy?!!!”

“Fire doesn’t work on Natsu,” said Lucy, a look of ominous glee on her face.

“Remember this well!!” said Natsu, suddenly on standing holding the man by his collar, his other fist aflame, “This is the might of a Fairy Tail wizard!” Natsu struck the man with his fist on the last word, sending him flying across the park into some nearby buildings. Natsu leapt after him, propelling himself with his Wings of the Fire Dragon, which he then used to blast the man high into the air. Using the Flaming Claw of the Fire Dragon, Natsu flew higher than the man, only to use his breath attack to send them hurtling into the ground, doing further damage to the city.

Once Natsu landed back on the ground near Lucy, she smacked him in the arm, saying “Great, you’ve destroyed the town. Let’s get out of here before the army shows up. I just wanted one date that doesn’t end in something blowing up, is that too hard to ask?”

“He was slandering Fairy Tail’s good name,” Natsu said, “He had it coming.”

“That’s not the issue. The issue is that you destroyed those buildings. Let’s go,” Lucy said as she stormed off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so I begin to modify the actual manga.
> 
> This will take awhile.
> 
> Also, I read chapter 530, and decided that the first ten pages of that chapter never happened for the purposes of the fic.


	10. The Dragons and The Vulcan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lucy and Natsu get back to town after her disaster of a date only to find that one of the guild members has been missing for several days! Together with the rest of their team they head off to get them back.

The next day, Lucy and Natsu arrived back at the hall. Lucy sat down with Levy and let out a sigh.

“What did he do now?” Levy asked, looking up from her book.

“There was this guy,” Natsu explained as he sat down with his wife, “He was saying that he was part of Fairy Tail, and was using illegal magic. I fought him and I might have gotten a little out of hand.”

“Understatement of the week,” Lucy scoffed, “so how was your date?”

Levy blushed slightly, “It was good. We had dinner.”

“Yeah,” Mira said, putting a beer beside Lucy, a cup of tea beside Levy, “You’ll need these.”

“Thank you,” Levy muttered, her face turning even redder.

“Moon tea?” asked Lucy.

“No,” Mira said, “that stuffs to expensive. Besides, you knew me from when I joined. I can make any drink into Plan B. You any?”

“No,” Lucy said, “not for a month at the soonest.” Natsu groaned loudly.

“Well shit,” Mira said, “I expect we’ll be getting a letter from the council soon.”

“I’d be insulted if we didn’t,” Lucy said, nursing her drink.

Gajeel walked over holding a piece of paper, the other slayers and their cats following behind.

“Hey Salamander,” Gajeel said, “I got us a job, a really nice one.”

“How good?” Natsu asked.

“All we need to do is destroy a book,” Wendy explained, “the reward is two-hundred thousand jewel!”

Lucy and Wendy did a spit take.

“Hold on,” said Lucy, “let me see that.”

“There is no way that’s legit,” agreed Levy, taking the paper from her husband. She took out her gale-reading-glasses and read over the page many times over. “This is legit,” she said after a moment.

“Ok,” said Lucy, standing up, “Let’s get going before-”

Suddenly, team Ice Age walked through the door.

“Hey flame brain!” called Gray, who’s shirt and pants had already disappeared, somehow, “I hear you burned Hargeon to the ground!”

“It was only half of it!” he yelled.

“Oh gods not now,” said Lucy, putting her face in her hands.

“Oh yes,” called Ultear, “Because that’s _so_ much better.”

“Knock it off!” said Gajeel as he hit Natsu with an iron pole.

“I’m going to go get ready for the job,” Levy said as she finished the tea.

“I think I’ll join you,” Lucy said as the guild erupted into chaos around them.

As the two women walked out, they saw Romeo running up to the guild hall. Lucy stood in front of him, saying “Hold on Romeo, a fight just broke out in there. Hold up for a moment, ok?”

“Ok,” said the child, tears welling up in his eyes, “But has my dad come back? He said he’d be back in three days, but it’s been a week since then.”

The women looked at each other, an entire conversation being had between them without a word leaving their lips.

Levy kneeled down and put her hand on Romeo’s head, saying “Don’t worry, Romeo, we’ll get your dad.”

Lucy went back in and called out “Team Dragon Tail! We’re gonna go save Macao! Finish up so we can go!”

“What about the job we already took?” asked Rouge after shadow clawing Elfman into a wall.

“We’re doing this first gods damn it!” yelled Gajeel as he sent Jet flying out the ceiling, “He’s family. Where is it?”

“The job my dad took is at Mount Hakobe!” called Romeo.

“It’s on the way!” said Happy, who was sitting in the rafters with his fellow flying cats.

“Lets go then!” said Natsu, kicking Gray in the gut hard enough to end their bout, and walking to the door. His teammates soon followed.

The group rented a carriage and went to the mountain, but had to stop part of the way up as the blizzard outside made it impossible for it to continue.

“I-its cold!” screamed Lucy as she got out.

“It wouldn’t be that bad if you wore more clothes,” pointed out Natsu as he engulfed himself in flames and stood near his wife.

“But then you wouldn’t do this,” Lucy said, smiling.

“You guys ok with the cold?” asked Natsu.

“I’m fine,” said Wendy, as the wind whipped up around her, “I learned how to make a small field of air that’s whatever temperature I want.”

“Mind if we join you in it then?” asked Carla.

“I’d have to be holding you,” said Wendy, “but sure.”

As Wendy picked up Carla and Happy, Sting asked, “Can you spread it over an entire person?”

“Sorry Sting,” Wendy answered, “I’m already at my limit as it is.”

“It’s alright,” said Rogue, “I can just take us into my shadow. It’s always pretty warm there.”

“Ugh,” sighed Sting, “I was hoping I wouldn’t have to use that. It’s to humid.”

“I know, but that’s the shadow realm for you,” agreed Rogue as he sank the two of them and their cats into their shadows.

“What about you two?” asked Natsu.

“Thank you,” said Levy, standing next to Lucy.

“Alright,” said Gajeel, “According to the master, Macau went up here hunting Vulcans, so watch yourselves.”

As the group climbed the mountain, they called out to Macau. After a short time, they heard a loud rumbling at the top of the mountain and they went silent.

“Boys,” said Gajeel.

“On it,” said the shadow with Rogue’s voice. It darted off at high speeds to investigate, but before it could even leave their sight, a giant gorilla dropped down on the group.

“It’s a Vulcan!” yelled Happy as he flew out of the way of the beast.

The monster grabbed Levy and Lucy and ran away, saying “Human women!” in a love-struck voice. Natsu and Gajeel quickly turned to where the voice was coming from, only to see little more than a shadow in the distance.

“Damn it!” yelled Gajeel, “we can’t get a good shot on the thing.”

“But that bastard took Lucy,” Natsu said, his flames growing even larger, “I’m going after it.”

“Obviously,” Gajeel agreed as he turned to iron, “I need a cat!”

“Frosch will go!” said the green cat as he left the shadow. He hopped onto Gajeel’s back as Happy got on his father’s. Together, the dragon slayers and cats flew after the monster, arriving at a cave high up on the mountain.

When they arrived, they saw the monkey throw the girls into the middle of the room and begin to chant “Women” over and over.

“Open, gate of the Lion: Leo!” said Lucy as the golden key she held glowed. A red headed man in glasses and a suit appeared before her.

“A pleasure to see you again, Lucy,” he said, “I take it this Vulcan is why you called me out?”

“Iron Dragon’s Lance!” yelled Gajeel as he sent an iron pole into the monster’s face, “Don’t you dare touch my wife!”

“I’ll take that as a yes,” said Leo.

“Vulcan’s use take over on their pray,” Levy said as Leo ran up to the monster, his fists glowing, “That thing is Macau, so don’t kill him.”

“Ok!” called Leo, Gajeel, and Natsu, as they charged the beast.

The Vulcan picked some icicles off of the ceiling and threw them at the three men, only for Natsu to melt them all, cackling “Like that would work on me!”

“Vernier,” said Wendy as she landed on the cave, and suddenly Sting and Rogue began to glow slightly sky blue.

“Thanks!” Sting called as he ran at the beast and kicked it’s jaw while his foot glowed white. This sent the monster flying into the ceiling, and when he landed he was unconscious.

“Woo!” Rogue said, “We won! Good job Sting!”

“ah ha,” laughed Sting, blushing, “I couldn’t have done it if Wendy hadn’t given me that speed boost.”

“You two are adorable,” said Leo.

“I know right,” Macau agreed as he tried to stand from where the Vulcan had been, “Wendy, you mind?”

“Oh, yes!” Wendy said as she went over to the man and began to heal the large cut on his abdomen.

While that was going on, Natsu and Gajeel had ran over to their wives to check on their wives.

“Are you alright?!” Natsu asked exasperated.

“It didn’t hurt you, did it?” asked Gajeel, only slightly more composed.

“We’re fine,” said Levy, “You showed up as soon as we were let down, he didn’t have time to hurt us.”

“Good,” sighed Natsu, before turning to look at Macau, “You look like you fought pretty hard before going down. What happened?”

“The job said that there were sightings of Vulcans in the area,” Macau explained, “I thought it wouldn’t be that hard, I mean, you saw how easy it was for you guys to handle the one. Then I got up here and got jumped by twenty of the things. I managed to take down nineteen of ‘em before I got taken over.”

Gajeel let out a whistle, then said, “That’s impressive, twenty-on-one is not an easy fight.”

“Heh,” Macau sighed, “Maybe that’ll get the kids of Romeos back.”

“What?” asked Wendy.

“Before I took this job, Romeo was being bullied at school, they kept saying that we were nothing more than drunken cowards.”

“How old were these kids?” asked Natsu, to which Lucy immediately said “You are not beating up children.”

“They’re six,” Macau laughed, “To young to be reasoned with by anything other than a show of force, and way too young for anyone in the guild to be able to get away with fighting, so I took this job to prove we’re worth a damn.”

“Well,” Wendy said, standing up, “That was the last of your wounds. We should head back.”

“Ok,” Gajeel said, “Macau, you ok to head back to town? We’ve actually taken a job, and should really get going.”

“I should be fine, thanks” Macau said as he got up. Together the mages made their way down to the base of the mountain, where Macau got a carriage to take him back to town, while team Dragon Tail went to the station and got on a train to Shirotsume town, where their next job was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the late chapter guys, my parents showed up at my dorm yesterday and I didn't have time to post this.  
> Actually, I'm thinking of changing it so the new chapter comes out on Sunday. Let me know what you guys think.  
> As for why the team is called Dragon Tail, the dragons weren't even 10 when they went through eclipse, they're all dragon slayers (and thought they were the only ones in the guild at the time), and the guild's name is Fairy Tail. I think it's clever for a seven year old.  
> Also, Gajeel is apparently the leader of the team. I did not plan that, it just sorta happened. Then again, that could be said for the entire fic, I didn't plan almost any of it, it just sorta came into existence one night.


	11. Dear Kaby

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Dragon Tail gets a job to destroy a book. Simple enough, right? Well, the reward is to much for a job that simple, so whats the catch?

As Team Dragon Tail made their way to Shirotsume town for their job, Levy was looking at the poster.

“It says that the book is owned by Duke Everlue,” she said, “He’s a creep, but he’s very wealthy and well protected. As far as I can tell, there are only two ways to get into house.”

“But you haven’t even seen it yet,” said Frosch, “How do you know?”

“Her favorite author lived there a few years back,” Gajeel explained, “I took her there a few months ago on her birthday, now let her finish.”

“It’s alright,” Levy said, “Anyway, the two ways to get into the mansion are either through the front door, or we could sneak in through one of the windows.”

“I’d like to try the door,” Lucy said, “does the job give any idea on how to get in?”

“All it says is that the duke has a unique sense of beauty,” Levy said “and is hiring blonde maids.”

Everyone in the train compartment, save Natsu, who was too sick to even sit up straight, looked at Lucy.

“You said he was a creep,” said Lucy quickly, “how so?”

“Quote: ‘this person is a womanizer, a pervert, and hentai!’” said Levy, “So I was thinking of just having you distract him while we sneak in, if you wanted to do that.”

“Let’s just sneak in,” said Lucy.

“Alright,” nodded Gajeel as they arrived, “We’re here.”

“Oh thank the gods!” said Natsu as the train came to a stop, “I am never riding a train again!”

“You say that all the time,” said Happy as he hoped down from his seat.

“And this time I mean it!”

“Uh-hu,” said Carla, following her boyfriend.

“Anyway, I’m hungry. Let’s go eat!”

“I’m not hungry,” said Lucy, “anyone else wanna eat?”

“I could eat,” said Happy.

“Let’s just eat after the job,” Gajeel said “It shouldn’t take too long.”

“Alright,” said Natsu, “but let’s hurry!”

The team made their way to the mansion that the client was at, and the younger dragon slayers marveled at its size.

“It’s so big!” said Wendy in awe.

“Well the reward is two-hundred thousand jewels,” said Natsu, “If they have that kind of money to pay for us to burn a book, they must be rich.”

Gajeel knocked on the door and a voice could be heard from inside, “May I have your name, please?”

Gajeel said “We’re here from the mage guild-,” “SHH!!” interrupted the voice, “Be quiet, please!!! Sorry, but could you enter from the back door, please?”

“Ok,” said Levy as a look of confusion spread across all of their faces.

The group made their way to the back of the building to the door and were let in by a dark-haired woman. She lead them to a parlor room, where the mages sat down. After a short time, an older man with dark hair came into the room.

“I’m terribly sorry about earlier,” he said with the same voice as the one behind the door, “I’m the client, Kaby Melon. The lovely woman who let you in was my wife.”

“Your name sounds yummy,” said Natsu as he lounged on the couch, “Melon!” said Happy, standing on the back of the same.

“Hey!” chastised Lucy, “That’s rude!”

“Ah ha ha!” laughed Kaby, “it’s alright, I get that often. I must say, I was not expecting a mage from the renowned Fairy Tail to accept this job, let alone so many!”

“Really? I was wondering why such a good job was still available,” said Natsu.

“And you’re young, too. You must be famous wizards.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” said Levy nervously.

“Oh don’t sell yourself short,” said Gajeel, “We’re team Dragon Tail.”

“Oh! I’ve heard of you all!” said Kaby.

“So, shall we get to the work?” asked Carla.

“Yes, of course,” said Kaby, “There’s only one thing I want you to do: the one and only copy of a book called Day Break is owned by the duke. I want you to burn it.”

“That’s surprising,” said Lucy, “I thought he had taken the book from you and you wanted it back.”  
“What is that book anyway?” asked Levi.

“Who cares!” said Natsu, “We’re getting two hundred thousand!”

“Actually,” said Kaby, “The contingency fee is two million.”

“Two million!” cried the wizards.

“Oh my, you didn’t know about the increase?” mused Kaby.

“Hold up,” said Gajeel, “Why the increase all of a sudden?”

“That book needs to be destroyed,” Kaby said, a look of pensive regret overtaking his face, “I can’t excuse that book’s existence.”

“Let’s go guys!” yelled Natsu as he grabbed Lucy’s hand, “I’m burning with passion!”

“Woo!” called Sting, following out Natsu, “Two million!”

“Wait up!” called Rogue as he chased after Sting.

“Uugh” grunted Gajeel, standing up, “I gotta get them.”

Team Dragon Tail headed to the mansion of Duke Everlue and began to survey their surroundings.

“It’s more like a castle than a mansion,” observed Levy.

“And you know how well those hold up against one dragon,” smirked Natsu, punching his fist.

“No you’re not burning it to the ground,” said Lucy.

“So,” said Gajeel, “Any ideas on how we’re getting in?”

“The cats can fly most of us up to the roof,” Levy said, “but that would leave three of us on the outside. Rogue, do you think you could bring yourself, Sting, and Wendy to the roof top?”

“We’d have to go slow,” Rogue said, “But I could do it.”

“Alright, lets do this,” said Gajeel.

The cats flew the elder dragon slayers and their wives over while the three younger dragons slipped into a shadow that went over to the top of the building. When the three younger dragons had arrived, Gajeel had already used his fingernails to pick the lock on a window.

“I don’t see why we can’t just charge in through the front entrance,” said Natsu.

“Because we’re basically robing the man!” said Lucy, “He may be a creep, but he’s not a criminal!”

“He’s a politician,” said Gajeel, “They don’t come without a criminal background. That said, this is just that much harder. He’s no doubt got people pissed enough at him to try and take his head, so he’ll have top notch security.”

“So no violence!” said Levy.

“Why are you looking at me?” asked Natsu.

“Remember our date?” said Lucy, climbing into the window behind Gajeel, “Is this like a storage room or something?”

“Mom, lookie here!” said Happy, putting a skull he had found over top his head.

“Put that back!” she whisper-shouted.

“Rogue, start checking the rooms for bookcases,” Gajeel said after the rest of the team had climbed into the building, putting down a crystal ball with a ceramic wolf lying across it, “You go left, we’re going right. Come back when you either find the book, ok?”

“Yes sir!” said Rogue before sinking into the shadows again and darting off down the hall.

“Are we really going to check every room?” asked Natsu, “wouldn’t it just be faster to find someone and ask them?”

“I already have criminal record because of you,” said Gajeel, “I’d rather not make it any longer if I don’t have to.”

“Yet you made a spell to pick locks,” Natsu quipped.

“Not now you two!” whisper yelled their wives.

Suddenly, four very, very ugly blonde women in maid’s outfits leapt out of the floor, shouting “Intruders detected! Eliminate the targets!”

Natsu retaliated by hitting them down the hall with a flaming roundhouse.

“Crap they found us!” he said.

“If you hadn’t made so much noise they wouldn’t have found us!” Gajeel yelled.

“Quit your yelling, you’ll bring them right to us!” shouted Natsu.

“Like your one to talk!” yelled Lucy.

“We need to hide,” said Levy, “maybe they’ll lose us if we hide in one of the rooms!”

The mages ducked into a room and found themselves to be in the manor’s library.

“Woah!” said Wendy, “He has even more books than Levy!”

“Given enough time and enough space,” said Gajeel, “She could get a collection to dwarf this one. Anyway, the book is probably here, so start looking!”

Natsu immediately complained, saying “It’s gonna take forever to find the one book in this whole library,” He then took out a golden book and read the title aloud “Day Break.”

There was a moment of silence, then Levy laughed, “That was one fast forever!”

“Well,” Natsu said as he lit his hand on fire “let’s burn it then!”

Hold up!” said Lucy, “Let me see that book!”

Natsu gave her the book, and she immediately said “This was written by Kemu Zaleon!”

“Really!” said Levy, “I thought we’d read all his works!”

“This one must be unpublished!” Lucy said.

“I’m sorry, who’s that?” asked Sting, cleaning his ear.

“He’s their favorite author,” said Natsu and Gajeel in unison.

“Did you guys bring Gale Force Glasses?” asked Gajeel, “Otherwise we’ll need to destroy the book before you can finish reading it and copying it down.”

“But didn’t the guy say to destroy the book?” asked Wendy.

“Yes,” said Levy, “But he never said anything about making another copy.”

“I see, I see” said a voice coming from the floor, “So that’s what you’re after.”

A short, fat, and ugly man emerged from the ground. “Hello, I am the duke, and that is my book.”

“Gah!” said Sting, “If you hadn’t taken so long he wouldn’t have found us!”

“I was wondering what the mages were looking for so frantically,” the duke said, “and it turns out to just be that worthless book!”

“Worthless?!” said Natsu.

“S-so we can keep the book then?” asked Levy.

“No. Regardless of how worthless it is, the book still belongs to me,” said the duke.

“All we have to do is burn it and we’re done here,” said Natsu.

“At least let me read it first!” said Lucy as she sat down, pulled out her gale force glasses and began to read.

“How dare you touch the book that belongs to Duke Evardo!” yelled the duke, “Come, Vanish brothers!”

Suddenly, the bookshelves separated and out came two men. One had pointed ears, tattoos covering his face, a long pony tail, and a very large frying pan. The other was much taller, with black hair that looked like a cactus, as well as having a large, beak-like nose. As they emerged, the shorter of the two said “Finally time for business.”

“If we get paid without doing any actual work, mama will get mad at us,” said the other.

“Good afternoon,” said the first.

“These brats are from Fairy Tail?” asked the other, “Mama would be surprised too.”

Happy quickly pointed at the cloths strapped to their arms, saying “Look at those cloths! They’re mercenaries from the Southern Wolves!”

“He hired guys like those?” said Natsu.

“Boyoyoyo!” yelled the duke, “Southern Wolves are always hungry, prepare to die!”

“Sting go get Rogue,” said Gajeel, who had already covered himself in iron preparing for the fight.

“Yes sir,” said Sting, “I just need an opening.”

“Like you’ll ever get one!” yelled the duke, “Vanish Brothers! Retrieve the book at once! And Kill them all!”

Lucy was three quarters of the way through the book when she said, “Guys! Buy me and Levy some time! This book has some kind of a secret!”

“Huh?” went Levy as Lucy grabbed her wrist and pulled her away from the fight.

“Secret!?” said the duke.

“Lucy where are you going!” called Natsu.

“To find somewhere we can read!” Lucy called back as she dove through a door and slammed it behind Levy.

“Change of Plan!” said the duke as he tunneled through the floor, “I’ll get those girls myself! Vanish brothers! Obliterate those brats!”

The shorter of the two brothers let out a sigh before saying “Selfish clients tire me out.”

“For real,” agreed the taller.

“This is troublesome,” said Natsu.

“Wendy and cats,” said Gajeel, turning to iron, “Go after Levy and Lucy. Me and Natsu got these clowns. Sting, when you get rogue, join them.”

“Got it!” said the younger members of the team.

“I could take these guys out myself,” Natsu said.

“Yeah, so could I,” said Gajeel, “But this way is faster.”

“Bastards!” called the taller of the two.

“Calm down,” said the shorter, putting his hand out so as to block his companion from charging in.

“Be careful Dad!” called Happy as he, Wendy, and the cats followed after Lucy and Levy.

“I will!” Natsu called back.

“C’mon Salamander!” said the shorter of the two mercenaries, pulling out his frying pan.

“Oh?” Natsu said, “How’d you know it was me?”

“There are surveillance Lacrima all throughout the building,” said the shorter of the two.

“Your reputation also helps,” said the taller, “Mama told me about Dragon Tail, who is actually mostly flying cats, and is the number four team in Fairy Tail.”

“Four!?” the dragon slayers said, rage apparent in their eyes.

“You better be ready to burn for that,” Natsu said.

“Unfortunately,” said the shorter, brandishing his frying pan, “I must decline. Fire mages like yourself are especially easy for me.”

“Is that so?” said Gajeel, “You realize I can eat iron, right? And what’s that pan made of?”

“Steel,” the shorter said, “I’m not an idiot, I know I couldn’t beat you with a cast iron one. But with a steel one, you cannot win.

“You and what army?” mocked Gajeel.

“A mage is no match for a professional fighter from a mercenary guild,” said the taller, “We don’t need an army.”

“Then why don’t you come and get us?” laughed Natsu, “Both together, you’ll need it.”

“Nii-chan,” the taller said, “These mages are really looking down on us.”

“One of them is a flame mage,” said the shorter, “This should be easy business, don’t you think?”

The shorter man then lunged at Natsu, who easily dodged out of the way, only for his shirt collar to be grabbed by the taller one. Natsu was then thrown across the room and through the wall. The man with the frying pan followed after him, but Gajeel struck him in the back with his Iron Pole. This blow made him hit the railing of the walkway he and Natsu were standing on, breaking it.

“You sure it’s ok to break your boss’s house?” Natsu quipped as he landed.

“I would not have had your companion not struck me!” the short man yelled, side swiping at Natsu.

Natsu quickly jumped out of the way and saw that that tall man and Gajeel were fighting on the walkway.

Another strike with the frying pan forced Natsu up onto the stairs as the short man yelled, “How do you keep dodging!”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Natsu quipped, “It’s not like I fight in hand-to-hand combat for a living!”

“Nii-chan,” said the taller man, hopping down from the ledge to stand with his brother, “Mine is strong, but I doubt that they’d be able to dodge that attack.”

“Right!” said the short man as he held out his frying pan. His brother hopped into it, only for the short man to flick his wrist and send him high into the air. While Natsu was looking at the taller man, the man with the frying pan managed to lunge forward and hit him square in the jaw with his pan, knocking him back a short distance. The taller man then dropped down and punched him with both of his fists, burring Natsu’s head into the floor. The two brothers then turned their attention to Gajeel, who had jumped down during the attack. Gajeel sent a pair of Iron pillars down at them, only for the man with the frying pan to block them.

“That was one attack,” said Natsu as he stood up.

The two brothers turned around to face the fire mage, their shock plain as day on their faces.

“But based on your mugs, I’m guessing that was your finisher?” Natsu smirked, “How cute.”

“Fire Dragon’s Roar!” he yelled as he sent a pillar of flames erupting from his mouth.

“How foolish!” said the man with the frying pan. He spun around the pan as all the flames were drawn to it, “My pan absorbs all flames, multiplies its power, and sends it right back!!” an even larger pillar of flames were sent out of the pan back at Natsu, only for a pillar of iron filings to fly from behind the brothers, sending them flying through the wall and out the building.

“Rule one when fighting dragons,” Gajeel said to no one in particular, “Never turn your back on them.”

“You know they can’t hear you, right?” asked Natsu, emerging from the fire.

“Yeah, but then again they’ll probably never hear again,” Gajeel said, “At that range I might have blown their ears out.”

“Let’s find the others,” said Natsu.

“Right, the creep,” Gajeel said, smacking his forehead.

“You forgot!” laughed Natsu, flying up to the library.

“Shut it!” said Gajeel, doing the same.

Meanwhile, in the sewers beneath the house, Levy had finished reading Day Break.

“We can’t burn this,” she said, standing up.

“We need to tell Mr. Kirby” said Lucy, standing up from her position on the wall when suddenly, a pair of hands emerged and took hold of her wrists.

“Boyoyoyo,” laughed the duke, poking his head out to the side of the wall, “Tell me, what did you find? What is the secret of the book?”

“Like we’d ever tell you,” Levy said, “you enemy of literature!”

“Me?” the duke retorqued, “You’re calling such a well-educated man as myself an enemy of literature?”

“How can a guy who is happy with those weird maids be well-educated?” Lucy said.

“Don’t you insult my beautiful blonde maids!” yelled the duke, “Now tell me girl, what secret does the book have?”

When the two mages remained silent, the duke said with a sadistic smile creeping across his face, “If you don’t tell me, I’ll break her arms. It is my right to know the secret, since I made Kemu write the book.”

“Sky Dragon’s Claw!” yelled Wendy as she dropped down on top of the man’s arm, a cloud of strong wind swirling around her foot. The duke gasped in pain as he released Lucy from his now broken arm.

“Damned brat,” said the duke as he emerged from the wall, leaving a hole where he had been.

“Thanks Wendy!” said Lucy, pulling out her key ring, “The tables have turned, huh? If you give me this book, I’ll may forgive you.”

The Duke just smirked and said “You’re a fan of literature, but you are using that phrase incorrectly. You should say ‘the tables have turned’ when you have turned your position from a disadvantage into an advantage. And you can’t surpass my magic, Diver!”

The duke quickly began to sink into the ground once again, but halted when a wall appeared and flew at him, pilling him to the wall.

“What is this!” he cried.

“Solid Script: Wall,” said Levy.

“You’re a fool to think this would stop me!” said the duke, falling back into the wall behind him.

“I didn’t want to stop you, Levy smirked, “Only slow you down.”

“Open, gate of the Maiden: VIRGO!” said Lucy, and a pink haired maid appeared in a puff of smoke before her.

“Hello princess,” said the spirit, “What can I do for you?”

“I’m fighting a Diver mage,” Lucy explained “I need you to fight him.”

“Yes ma’am,” nodded Virgo before burrowing into the ground.

Two piles of rubble moved around the walls, floor, and ceiling where the mage and spirit fought, but eventually the spirit popped back up roughly where she had submerged, slightly worse for wear, but not nearly as much as the duke, who’s unconscious body was being held by the ankle by the spirit.

“What would you like me to do with him, Princess?” asked the spirit.

“We’re going up to the surface,” Lucy said, “Bring him with us.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Suddenly, a shadow darted into the hallway, and out of it emerged Sting and Rogue.

“What we miss?” asked Rogue.

“The entire fight,” said Lector.

“Why don’t you go get Gajeel and Natsu?” asked Levy, “We’re heading back up top now.”

“Alright,” sighed Rogue, before sinking into his shadow and darting off.

The mages all gathered together and headed to the home of their client, where Levy revealed to the client that his father had left him three years’ worth of letters in the book, as well as a list of all the illegal things that he had learned the duke had done during his reign. They turned down their pay, saying that not only would it put the Melons in ruin, the mages hadn’t completed their job, and so they didn’t deserve the pay. They had dinner, then went back to Magnolia

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dear gods. Why did Mashima make every chapter of this arc end in the middle of a line of dialogue? He didn't end it during a sentence, luckily, but dear gods, that was annoying. In the future I will try to not adapt four chapters in a single chapter. So if you're thinking the ending is rushed, yes, yes it is.
> 
> Now updating on Sundays, making it official.


	12. Brawl on a Train

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Dragon Tail gets back from their job, just in time for Team Fernandez to show up! They have a lead on a creation of Zeref's, and they want Natsu's help dealing with it.

“Shit,” Natsu saidWhen team Dragon Tail got back to town, Lucy headed over to the request board. “Oh come on Lucy,” Sting whined, “we just got back from a job!” “That we didn’t get paid for,” said Lucy, “We need money.” “Right, so what kind of job do you guys wanna do?” said Gajeel, standing next to Lucy, “There’s one for removing a curse from a stick, finding an enchanted ring, or, oh, this one’s interesting! Exterminate a demon from a volcano. How about that?” “Yeah!” said Sting and Rogue. “Any objections?” Gajeel asked, but before anyone could answer, Sawyer ran into the room and yelled “The Fernandezs are back!” After a moment, the front door was sent flying open and Jellal, Simon and Erza Fernandez walked in. Jellal had a rather subdued bedhead of blue hair; Simon wore an eyepatch over his left eye, along with a turban like head wrapping and the metal jaw of a demon he slew some years ago and never took off; and Erza wore a white blouse with blue skirt. For some reason, she also carried a massive horn decorated at one end in gold and jewels. All three of them had the same red tribal tattoo over their right eyes. “We’re back,” Erza said, putting the horn on the ground, “is the master around?” “My old man’s at the regular meeting,” Laxus explained from the second-floor balcony, “What do you need?” “We’d like Natsu’s assistance,” explained Jellal, “The dark guild Eisenwald is after an artifact made by Zeref.” The entire bar went absolutely silent. “What are they after?” Natsu said through gritted teeth, the air around him growing uncomfortably warm. “They found something called Lullaby in a cave,” Simon said, “We did a little digging, and it turns out Lullaby is a demon of the books of Zeref that was bound to a flute. Anyone hears it and they’ll be killed instantly.” Natsu’s mouth twisted into an almost inhumane grin of malice as he said “Well, I’m already fired up, and I haven’t even seen the thing.” “We’ll be at the train station tomorrow morning,” Erza said, “Prepare yourself.” “I was about to say the same thing,” said Natsu. The next day, Natsu, Lucy, and Happy were waiting in the train station for the Fernandezs to show up. When they did arrive, Erza said “Sorry we made you wait,” “It’s no trouble,” said Lucy, “I hope you don’t mind, but me and Happy are coming with.” “Of course,” said Jellal, “we expected as much.” “The train is boarding,” Simon pointed out, “We should get going.” “Right,” Natsu smirked, “Let’s do this!” The mages boarded the train, and as soon as it started to move, Natsu was overcome with motion sickness. “Does that really happen every time he’s on transportation?” asked Jellal. “Unfortunately,” said Lucy, “The only things he can ride are animals.” “There’s no other way then,” sighed Erza, who sat opposite Natsu. She proceeded to conjure a spear, then jammed it’s blunt edge into the dragon slayer’s forehead, knocking him unconscious. “That should ease him a little,” said Erza as Lucy and Happy looked at her in complete shock. The mages rode on in silence for a short while before Lucy asked “Oh, I was thinking, you guys joined Fairy Tail with Heaven’s eight, right? Why’d they leave?” “Two reasons,” Jellal explained, “When we first joined, they were too young to go on any of the big jobs, and taking out the guild’s cut, then dividing it eleven ways left us with hardly enough money to pay for a room in Fairy Hills, so the three of us would do larger jobs to pay for everything, and we just never got back in the habit of going on jobs as a group again.” The train arrived at their stop and they started getting off as Jellal continued. “The other reason is that we were, and are, the only ones out of the elven of us that have found our soulmates, and it can get a little upsetting spending all your time around a couple when you don’t meet your soulmate for over a decade.” “Makes sense,” said Lucy, “And about the tattoos,” “Centuries ago Fiore invaded a neighboring country and took it over,” Erza explained, “The people there used these tattoos to mark what family you were in. This is the mark of the Fernandez tribe.” “Oh,” Lucy said. “Wait,” said Happy, “Where’s Dad?” “What?!” said Lucy as she looked around, “He must not have gotten off the train!” “I forget,” said Simon, “am I allowed to swear in front of the cats yet? Because I really want to right now.” Meanwhile, on the train the mages had just gotten off of, Natsu had just regained consciousness when a black-haired man came and sat down across from him. “My my my,” the man mused, “you seem to be in pain. Are you ok?” He paused for a moment and said, “Fairy Tail. A regular guild, huh, I envy you. Speaking of Fairy Tail, you guys have like, what three wizard saints? There’s the master and that Jellal guy. I heard he’s got two soulmates, lucky bastard. Then there’s Ultear too. She’s beautiful. Do you know her?” It was all Natsu could do to not vomit on the man. When Natsu did not respond for a moment, the man said “I noticed that regular guilds have many cute girls, I envy you. There are no girls in my guild. Would you please share some?” The black-haired man stood up, saying “Or so I’d say,” as he kicked Natsu squarely in the face, pinning his head to the seat. “Don’t ignore me,” he said, a sinister smirk spreading across his mug, “That’s discriminatory to dark guilds.” Natsu looked the man in the eye, his rage building. “Oh, now you react,” laughed the black-haired man. “W-wha you doin’?” mumbled Natsu. “’xcuse me?” the black-haired man said, “I can’t really understand you. You know, Fairy Tail has been getting a lot of attention lately. Stuck up people like that annoy the hell out of me. You know what we call Fairy Tail in my guild? Flies!” “Flies?” grunted Natsu, standing up, his face slick and shining. “Ooooh,” mocked the man as he sat down, “You’re gonna go for it?” Natsu lit his hands on fire, but quickly smothered them as he had to hold back the vomit. “Bwahahaha!” laughed the man, “What was that? You gotta use your magic like this!” Suddenly a fist the size of the man’s head erupted out of his shadow and hit Natsu across the face. As Natsu stumbled and fell to the floor, the black-haired man laughed like a madman, but it was quickly smothered beneath the screeching of the tracks as the train came to a halt. “It stopped,” said Natsu as he stood, “Now I can say thanks for earlier.” He engulfed his entire body in fire and punched the man so hard that he flew to the end of the car. The contents of the bag that the man had with him spilled out all across the train, and amongst them was a wooden flute with an ornate carving of a three-eyed skull at one end. “Bastard!” said the man as he sat up. He was close enough to the flute that when he saw it he could grab it and shove it behind his back. “What was that?” asked Natsu, heat waves radiating from his body. Then, over the speakers, a man said “We’ve confirmed that the emergency break was due to a false report. We will be departing shortly. We apologize for your inconvenience.” “Shit,” Natsu said as he climbed out of a window, “I gotta get out of here.” “I won’t let you!” called the man, “You picked a fight with Eisenwald! Don’t think you can get away with it, you pathetic fly!” “Same to you!” Natsu shouted, now standing outside of the train as it drove away, “I know your face! Nobody makes fun of Fairy Tail! I’ll fight you outside next time!” Natsu looked around as the train got further and further away, and saw that a magic carriage was hurtling toward him. It came to a screeching halt and it’s driver, Jellal, yelled “Natsu are you ok!?” “We’re so sorry!” cried Happy flying into his arms. “How could you leave me behind!” Natsu practically yelled. “Sorry about that,” Lucy said, “but at least you’re safe.” “How was I safe?” said Natsu, “Some guy from Eisenwald attacked me!” “You idiot!” said Erza as she smacked him across the face, “We’re looking for Eisenwald!” “What was I supposed to do?! I was on a train!” “No matter!” said Simon, “What’s done is done, what did he look like?” “Nothing special,” Natsu said, “he had a flute with a three-eyed skull on it.” This time Jellal and Erza both punched him. “THAT WAS LULLABY YOU IDIOT!” roared Jellal. “Lets go!” said Erza, picking up Natsu’s now unconscious body and throwing it into the car. They all packed themselves into the car and drove as fast as it would go after the train.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I managed to not write an entire arc in a single chapter! That's good. This is also my first cliffhanger! This is fine.


	13. Oshibana Station

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The battle of Fairy Tail versus Eisenwald at Oshibana Station. Though when its five verses twenty, can it it really be called anything other than a massacre?

As the mages pulled into Oshibana station, they saw it completely blocked off by guards. A crowd had gathered around the barricade.

“They took over a _train_? asked Lucy, looking out the window.

“Looks like it,” said Simon, “But why? I could understand a carriage or a boat, but a train?”

“Aye,” said Happy, “It can only run on rails, so it’s not the best choice.”

“But it’s got speed,” said Erza, “They’re probably in a hurry to carry out their plan.”

“That’s not all,” said Jellal, getting out of the car, discarding his cloak to reveal his muscle shirt underneath, “The train goes over a canyon from here, leaving no way to get past here with the barricade. It be a three-day detour at the best.”

“Well shit.” said Simon.

“I’m not complaining,” Erza asked, looking at Jellal’s abs, “but why’d you strip?”

“We’re going to fight, and you expected me to fight in a massive cloak?” Jellal said, “I only brought it because I was cold this morning. Now lets go before they release the demon.”

“But the car,” said Lucy, dragging her husband out of the vehicle, which began to glow green and vanish into Erza’s hand.

“I’m a walking armory, remember?”

“Lets get going!” Simon said, heading into the station.

“Just a heads up,” Natsu said, “That guy from the train uses the same magic as you, Simon.”

“Then this should be fun,” the shadow mage said, grinning.

The mages made their way inside the station and were greeted by a mass of mages, one of whom had a large skeletal scythe and was sitting on top of the train.

“We’ve been waiting for you,” he said.

“You’re Erigor, aren’t you?” asked Erza.

“Wait,” said Lucy, “As in the infamous assassin?”

“I’m sorry,” A dark-haired man roared, “Are you going to fight me and my guild, and you don’t even know who we are? Oh, this is going to be a piece of cake!”

“That’s the guy from the train,” said Natsu.

“What do you intend to do?” Erza said, giving the enemy mages a death glare, “Your answer decides how rough we are with you.”

“We just want to fool around,” Erigor said, “We’ve got no job and we’re really bored.”

“You’re bored,” Simon said, his face resting in his hand, “So you decide to release a demon in the middle of a city.”

Erigor flew up inside of a tornado. “Don’t you know? Lullaby’s concealed form can be used as a flute, and anyone who hears it dies. And what do they have in a train station?” He landed atop a speaker.

“YOU’RE GOING TO BROADCAST THE SONG!” roared Natsu.

“There are hundreds, no thousands of people gathering around this station now,” laughed the wind mage, “If we get the signal loud enough, the entire town might be able to hear the melody of death!”

“Mass murder!?” Jellal said.

“We’re simply cleaning up those fools who live their lives enjoying their right,” Erigor said, doing a summersault off into the air, “not knowing that there are people who have had their rights revoked is a sin. Thus, the Shinigami have come to punish them. With death!”

“And the royals of Efren will stop you!” Jellal roared before glowing a brilliant yellow light and flying after Erigor.

Erigor managed to doge the attack and said ‘You guys hold them off while I go play the flute!” before he broke through the window behind him.

“Like hell I’m letting you get away from me!” yelled Jellal, only to realize that a thin strip of black bandages had wrapped itself around his ankle. Not a moment after he realized this had he been smacked into the ground by whomever had created them.

“Like hell I’m letting you go anywhere!” yelled a man with a black and yellow hood, the black bandages coming from his fingers.

“I’ll get him!” said Natsu, “Happy, with me!”

“Aye!” said the cat as he grew wings and picked up his father, going after the air mage.

“I got ‘em!” called the black-haired man from the train, sinking into his shadow and darting after Natsu.

“That leaves the rest of them for us,” said Erza as she requipped into her heaven’s wheel armor.

The Fairy Tail mages heard “Fuck,” then saw dozens of swords fly out of nowhere and pin the dark mages to the wall, as well as cut several of them.

“Holy crap,” said Lucy in complete awe at the monstrous woman before her.

“I missed one,” said Erza, looking at the man that had attacked Jellal running away in terror.

“Lucy, come with me,” said Jellal running after the two mages, “We’re going after them.”

“Y-yes sir!” Lucy said, chasing after the wizard saint.

Not to long after, they came to a split in the path.

“Crap,” said Jellal, “I don’t see ‘em.”

“You go left, I go right?” said Lucy.

“Ok with me,” said Jellal, turning to the left path. “If you find them, crush them.”

“He picked a fight with Fairy Tail,” she said going down the right, “That was a forgone conclusion.”

As Jellal ran down the hallway he thought to himself where Erigor might have gone. “Wait, if he’s going to broadcast Lullaby, so he’d need to be in the Broadcasting room!” He turned around and ran to the studio he had recently passed. Kicking down the door, he found that it was seemingly abandoned.

“Where is he?” Jellal thought aloud, “This would be the only room to make a broadcast. Oh shit. We’re back to plan A. Gods damn it.” He turned to run out of the room, but reflexively jumped back when black bandages shot down to where he was going to be.

“Nice job on dodging it this time,” said the hooded man as he came down from the ceiling, “But you’re wrong, we’re not going to release the demon. We’re just going to play it in Clover town.”

“Thanks for revealing your plot,” said Jellal, glowing brightly as he activated his meteor spell, “Saved us a lot of time right there.” A single punch was all it took to bring down the dark mage.

“Now if you excuse me,” Jellal said, “I have to go stop your boss.” With that, he flew down the hall and into the station where he had left his spouses, where he told them his discovery.

“That’s where the regular meeting is!” exclaimed Simon, “They’re gonna kill the masters!”

“And I saw on my way here that Erigor has put up a dome of wind,” said Jellal, “We try and force our way out and we’ll be minced.”

“In that case,” Simon said biting his thumb, “I can only think of two ways to get out of here, well, three if you count my shadow form.”

“And you can’t carry anyone in it,” said Erza, “so I don’t.”

“We’ll either need to dispel the wind wall,” Simon said, “or hope Lucy could use one of her spirits to get us out of here.”

“Speaking of which,” said Erza, “Where is she?”

“We split up at a fork in the road,” Jellal said, “I can find her.”

“Go then,” said Erza.

Jellal flew throughout the station and found Lucy. He didn’t even pause as he grabbed her and flew back.

“Wha?!” Lucy exclaimed as she started to fly.

“It’s alright,” said Jellal, “Erigor has left and put a barrier up around the station, can any of your spirits get past a wind wall?”

“Yeah, Virgo can do that no problem,” said Lucy as she landed back with the Fernandezs.

“Then summon her and let’s get going!” said Erza.

“Wait, where are Natsu and Happy?” Lucy said.

“They flew after Erigor,” Simon said, standing up, “They’re probably halfway to Clover already.”

“Wait, why- “

“The target isn’t this town,” said Erza, “It’s the masters. Virgo. Now.”

“Sorry, right. Open, Gate of the Maiden, Virgo!”

A short pink-haired maid in manacles stood in front of the mages and said “Hello Princess, is it punishment time?”

“No!” exclaimed Lucy, “Just dig us a hole out of the station, it’s got a wind wall surrounding it.”

“Alright then,” said the spirit, “Here I go!” she dived into the ground, leaving behind a person sized hole where she had been.

“Princess?” asked Simon.

“I was seven!” Lucy shouted, “At this point her calling me anything else sounds weird.”

“Fair enough,” the shadow mage said, “Now let’s go.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will be explaining the reason Jellal said "Royals of Efren" before the end of the arc. I also went back and changed the previous chapters a bit, just fixed a few grammar things, fixed a number.
> 
> Did I miss the announcement there wouldn't be a chapter of the manga this week? Or did I just miss the chapter?


	14. Lullaby for Lullaby

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we catch up with Natsu, Happy, and Erigor, as they fight on the way to Clover.

As Natsu chased After Erigor, they went down the tracks over the canyon.

“You are one bothersome fly!” called Erigor as he shot wind at the fire mage and cat.

“Dad!” cried Happy as the blow made him loose his grip on Natsu, who began to plummet to the ground far below them.

“It’s alright!” said Natsu as he used a Wing Attack to launch himself forward, tackling Erigor and forcing the wind mage to fall onto the tracks below them.

“Storm Wave!” called Erigor as he sent a small tornado at Natsu, separating the two.

“Nice shot,” said Natsu, “Reminds me of my sister’s roar. Let me show you mine!”

Natsu sent a collum of flames bursting forth from his mouth, but Erigor easily dodged it by taking to the sky.

“I underestimated you,” said Erigor, “Now I won’t be holding back.” The wind mage became enveloped in a whirling cyclone.

“Here I come,” said the mage before flying down and punching Natsu, who side stepped out of the way and threw his own flame-covered fist.

Erigor grabbed ahold of Natsu’s fist and it immediately sputtered out. The dragon slayer threw a second punch, which was blocked by the storm mage’s other hand to the same result. A blast of wind went out from Erigor, knocking Natsu away, just in time for Erigor to send blades of wind as large as Natsu’s head careening toward him that he barely managed to dodge.

Natsu blasted flames from his feet, propelling him toward Erigor, but the wind halted him and sent him back where he had been standing a few moments earlier.

“HA!” laughed Erigor, “You can’t get close to me, and even if you could my Storm Mail would put out all your fire! Now take this, Emera Param!”

An emerald blast of wind snaked it’s way away from Erigor’s hands and tore the bridge to rubble before blasting into Natsu.

“DAAAAADDDDD!!!!” yelled Happy, flying down to Natsu’s body when the wind had cleared.

“I’m impressed,” mused Erigor, “He’s still in one piece. I must be losing my touch.”

“Or,” grunted Natsu as he stood, “You could be fighting a demon.”

“What!?” exclaimed Erigor, “You’re alive!?”

“Who the hell do you think I am?” said Natsu, “I’m the demon-king END, you bastard!”

“You’re in a light guild!?” Erigor said while sending wind blades at the demon.

Natsu only answered by completely covering his body in flames that didn’t even stutter when the blades hit them, and instead grew larger, melting the tracks beside him as the demon ran toward the wind mage, screaming “I’m gonna take you down!” as he punched Erigor in the stomach.

Erigor flew a good distance down the bridge from the blow, which also knocked Lullaby from his pocket. Natsu extingusished his flames as he walked over to the flute, saying “Happy, make sure I didn’t kill him, ok?”

“Aye!” said the cat, flying down to the mage.

Natsu looked at the flute and he could hear the faint voice of the demon trapped inside.

“Master END!” whispered the flute, “You have come to free me! I am more thankful than words can say!”

“Yeah, yeah,” said Natsu, “Look, I got separated from the others. Do you know where they are?”

“Unfortunately not, sir,” the flute whispered, “I was imprisoned shortly after I was made, I have never before met another demon of the books of Zeref.”

“Then you are no use to me,” said Natsu before turning to Happy and calling “Cover your ears!” and lighting his hand on fire. The flute let out a banshee-like wail as it was consumed by the flames, which did little more than ellicite slight irritation in Natsu as he tossed the flaming stick into the canyon to burn.

Once the flute’s cries had been silenced, Natsu gave Happy the signal to uncover his ears, then asked “How’s he doing?”

“He should be fine for a little while,” the cat said, “but he’s going to need a hospital soon.”

“Do you think a town is closer the way we came or we were going?”

“At this point I don’t know,” Happy shrugged.

Natsu turned to face the way they had come and soon the Fernandezs and Lucy were driving along the bridge in a magic four-wheeler.

“You guys are late!” called Natsu “I’ve already taken care of Lullaby!”

“Good job,” said Erza as she got out of the car, “Now the masters are safe.”

“That was their target?” said Natsu.

“You followed him out this far and you didn’t realize that,” said Jellal.

“I was a little busy chasing after him to think,” said Natsu.

“Anyway,” said Lucy “Did they know where any of the others are?”

“No,” said Natsu, “I was the only other demon it had ever seen.”

“What?” asked Erza.

“I’m trying to find Zeref,” explained Natsu, “So I’m trying to find demons, who will probably have some idea where to find him.”

“Why?” asked Jellal.

“Do you guys not know I’m END? Etherious Natsu Dragneel? Strongest Demon of the Books of Zeref? Designed with the soul purpose of killing him? Dude sent me and the other dragon slayers three-hundred years into the future just so that I could have a shot.”

“Well,” said Simon, “We need to spend more time at the guild then, if this is common knowledge.”

“And since we’re on the topic of suddenly finding out people are a lot more important than we realized, you said when you attacked Erigor that you were the royals of Elfring, or something?”

“Efrin,” Jellal explained, “It’s the country that Fiore invaded when the tribes that have familial tatoos joined in. The Fernandez tribe was the most influencial, and seeing how I’m the rightful ruler of the tribe, we’re the closest thing to kings and a queen there is for that country.”

“That’s been dead for hundreds of years,” said Happy.

“You try telling it that,” Erza said, “The tribes are still very insistent that they’re a nation.”

“But,” Happy continued, only to be interrupted by Jellal, “They don’t have a leg to stand on, they just don’t like that a foreigner is governing them.”

“Ok,” said Natsu, “This guy needs a hospital, we should head over to one.”

“We need to report what happened,” Erza said “so we might as well go over to Clover.”

“In that case I’m getting a window seat,” Natsu said.

“That was already established,” the other mages all said in unison.


	15. Galuna Island

The next day the Fernandezs and Dragneels were back in town. The day was relatively relaxed, only having three barfights, one of which was Natsu versus Erza, which Erza won.

By the end of the week, Team Dragon Tail had returned from their job.

“You should have seen the demon Natsu!” exclaimed Sting, “It was so big, it almost couldn’t climb out the top of the volcano!”

“It wasn’t one of Zeref’s though,” pointed out Levy, “So don’t worry.”

“Oh right,” said Rogue, “How was Lullaby? Did they help you?”

“No, but it’s fine.”

“Hey gramps,” said Gajeel, who was up at the bar eating iron filings, “You don’t look to good, everything ok?”

“Oh it’s fine,” said the Master, “Just getting sleepy is all.” He muttered something that could just barely be heard by the dragon slayers, and suddenly everything faded to black.

The guild woke up a few minutes later.

“Damn it Mistogun,” said Lucy, rubbing her eyes.

“Did anyone catch his face this time?” asked Sting.

“Only the master know what he looks like,” said Gray, “And there’s no way that’s ever gonna change if he has any say in it.”

“No,” said Laxus from his perch on the second floor with the Raijhinshu, “I know it as well.”

“Likewise,” said Jellal, “Me and my mates know it.”

“Wha!?” went most of the guild.

“Laxus! Fight me!” yelled Natsu.

“Erza beat you yesterday,” Laxus said, “If you can’t even stand against Erza, you have no hope against me.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” growled Erza.

“I mean that I’m the strongest!” Laxus bosted.

“Oh, so you’re a wizard saint?” Ultear purred, giving the lightning mage a smile that looked as inviting as a blizzard.

“Third strongest!” he corrected

“Then get down here bastard!” yelled Natsu.

“Why don’t you come up here?”

“Bring it on!” yelled Natsu as he ran to the steps to the second floor.

He was immediately stopped by a giant hand grabbing hold of him.

“You can’t go up to the second floor,” Makarov said, “Not yet.”

“Ha!” laughed Laxus, “How about this Natsu, you and the other dragons finish an S-job, and the Rajinshu ‘ll take you on.”

“You’re on!” yelled Natsu.

“Rogue,” said Lucy and Levy in unison.

“All ready on it,” said the shadow dragon slayer as he wrapped Natsu in dark tendrils and dragged him into his shadow, “Come on, we’re going home and you’re not seeing the sun until you calm down.”

That night, while Natsu was on house arrest with the rest of his team acting as wardens, Happy walked into his room to see him exercising.

“What do you need Happy?” he asked.

“I got you a present!” said the cat as he pulled a piece of paper out of his pack. unfurling it, Natsu and Lucy, who was sitting on the bed reading, saw that it was an S-class job flyer. “I already talked to Gajeel, and he said that since we’re all really strong, he had no problem doing the job if we all went together!”

“Wait what do you mean!?” yelled Lucy, “We’re not supposed to be able to get up to the 2nd floor!”

“I flew in throught the window.” explained the cat.

“That’s stealing!” Lucy balked.

“So was the Daybreak job,” the cat retorked, “But since we’re not actually S-class wizards, I got the cheapest job. It’s still seven million jewel though!”

“But like you said, we’re not actually S-class! We’re not doing it, and that’s final!”

“Oh come on Luce,” said Natsu, standing up, “We’re the best team in Fairy Tail that doesn’t have an S-class wizard in it, and even then we have sheer numbers on those that do. We’ll be fine.”

“You’re always so reckless,” Lucy sighed, laying down on the bed, “I’m not going.”

“There’s a crystal key in the rewards,” purred Happy, pointing to the rewards.

“Whaaat!?” yelled Lucy, bolting up as she grabbed the flyer from Happy, “A Circumpolar Gate Key!”

“Err, I’m sorry, but what are those?” asked Natsu.

“There are countless Silver Keys for most of the constellations, then one Golden Key for each of the Zodiacs plus Ophiuchus, but there are five constellations that are around the north star, called the circumpolar constellations, and they have crystal keys. They’re the strongest Celestial spirits in existence.”

“If I remember right,” said Happy, “The five crystal gates are Ursa Major and Minor, the big and little bears, though some people call them the big and little dipper, Cassiopeia, the queen, Cephus, the king, and Draco, the dragon.”

“That’s right,” said Lucy, “And since I know you guys are going to do this with or without me, I’m going.”

“You just want one of the Crystal Gates,” snickered Natsu, “I wonder which key it is.”

“Well,” Gajeel said, standing in the door way, “I hear Bird-girl already has the Queen and Big Bear, so it’s neither of those. Anyway, I’ve told the others, and they’re down for it. Let’s go before the guild figures out what we’ve done.”

By dawn the next morning, the entirety of team Dragon Tail was at Hargeon port looking for a ship willing to take them to Galuna island, which was a lot harder than it sounded. They asked fishing boats, cruise ships, merchant ships, and even a pirate ship and found that none would even go near the island. Half way to noon, they tried to get a man with a fish-like face in a cloak to take them. In respoces, he said, “I don’t know what you guys want to find there, but no sailor will go anywhere near that island. Even pirates stay away.”

“We know,” sighed Sting, “We’ve already asked them. Man it’s hot out. Rogue, mind giving me shade?”

“Sure,” replied the black-haired boy, who made his hand turn to shadow, then grow to cover the blonde boy from the sun.

“Wait, you guys are mages?” asked the fish-faced man, “Are you here, to break the curse?”

“Yeah!” said Natsu, “Will you take us?”

“Yes, hop on in.”

“Ha! There you are!” yelled Ultear, standing on the dock near-by with the rest of team Ice Age.

“Fuck fuck fuck,” swore Gajeel, “Everyone on the boat, Wendy roar us out of port.”

“Yes!” said Wendy as she and the rest of the team scrambled onto the small boat. By the time the ice mages were halfway to the boat, Wendy had turned to face them and yelled out “I’m sorry about this! Sky Dragon’s Roar!”

A tornado erupted from the little girl’s mouth and the small craft skipped across the water as the port behind them was torn to shreds.

“The fuck was that!” swore the flat-faced man once Wendy was finished.

“We’re team Dragon Tail,” said Lector, “We stole the job flyer, and now we’re being hunted by the other teams in the guild, since we’re not actually supposed to be able to take it. That was Team Ice Age, who has a Wizard Saint in it, so we had to get out quickly.”

“I’m starting to have second thoughts on this,” mused the man.

“I’d be concerned if you didn’t,” Levy said, “But on the job flyer it never said what kind of a curse it was that afflicted the island, do you know?”

The man sighed, then said, “I know, because I used to live on that island. I managed to escape, however.” He shifted his cloak to reveal a black, withered, insect-like arm and said “It is a demonic curse that plauges that island,” he pointed off toward an island on the horizon, “Galuna Island.”

The mages all looked at the island the man was pointing at, and when they turned back, he was gone.

“Huh?” started Lucy, “Where’d he go?”

“Did he fall?” Levy wondered aloud, only for Sting and Rogue to dive into the water, then pop up a few moments later and call out “We don’t see him!”

By this time the waves had begun to get stronger and stronger, until the mages heard a rumbling sound. They looked forward toward the source and saw a wave five times the size of their boat barreling down on them.

“We’re getting sucked in!” called Levy.

“Cats, lift up the boat!” commanded Gajeel.

“That’s impossible!” cried Happy.

“You all weigh to much!” yelled Charle.

“Frosche thinks so too!’ Frosche called.

“Boys get back in the boat!” Levy called out at Sting and Rogue, who were still out in the water.

That was the last any of them heard before the wave crashed down on their heads.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was a chapter where Natsu fought Erza, then they got hauled off to court, but that only happened because Natsu wouldn't have gone if they didn't, and also because they destroyed Clover. As is there's only slight damage to the tracks leading there.
> 
> Also, this story got 1000 hits! Woo!
> 
> Anyone know how to check how many subs I have?


	16. Isle of Demons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Dragon Tail crashes their boat on Galuna Island and begin their first S-class quest. Their job? Destroy the Moon.

Lucy awoke on the beach, sunlight glistening on her face. She started up, and looked around calling out “Is everyone OK!?”

Around her laid the unconscious bodies of her team mates. Natsu began to stur, and shot up to a sitting position, yelling out “Where are we!? Are we on Galuna island!?”

“We must be,” said Levy, sitting up, “but where are the boys?!”

“Right here,” groaned Rogue, getting up. He looked down and realized that he was laying on top of Sting, so he quickly scurried away, knocking into Gajeel in the process.

“Oof,” grunted Gajeel, getting up, “Anybody seen the cats?”

“We’re over here,” grunted Happy as he and Carla helped Wendy to stand, their fellow flying cats hovering around the area.

“Alright,” said Natsu, “Let’s go explore!”

“You’re not going anywhere!” yelled Gajeel, “This is an S-class job, and to make matters worse we have Ice Age after us. If we aren’t careful, somebody will get hurt. Now, it said on the flyer that there was a village on this island. That is where we can find the person who gave us the job. Let’s go there.”

The mages all nodded, a tad startled by his declaration. They set off, following the noses of the dragon slayers. A few hours had passed when they found a large gate constructed from felled trees, the tips cut to spikes. Roughly ten feet up from the bottom was a sign that read “KEEP OUT”.

“Keep out,” Sting said to himself, “What kind of village is this?”

“Quiet,” said Lucy before calling out at the top of the gate “Excuse us! Could you please open the gate?”

“Who’s there?” came a voice from the top of the gate.

“We’re from the wizard guild Fairy Tail!” called Lucy, “Erm, we saw your request.”

“Fairy Tail?” said the guard, “I don’t know anything about you accepting our job. But if you’re here to do the job, I won’t complain. Show me your guild marks.”

The mages did so, prompting the guard to muse “They look real,” before calling out “Alright, come on in, I’ll get the mayor.”

The gates opened and the mages entered. Mere minutes had passed before a large group of hooded figures appeared before them, one of the shorter ones holding a large staff.

“Thank you for coming here,” said the one with the staff, “I am Mocha, the mayor of this village. I’m sorry if it seems sudden, but please look at this, if you would.”

“You’re demons,” said Natsu as the people around him grabbed hold of their robes.

“What?!” Mocha said in disbelief, “How did you know?”

“I might not look like it,” said Natsu, “But I’m actually one as well. I can smell that you’re demons.”

“Really!” Mocha said, “Then do you know how to get rid of it?”

“We’re sorry,” said Levy, “but as far as we know, there is no way to cure demonification.”

“But to be fair,” said Natsu, “I’m a demon of the book of Zeref, so I’m very well made. There is a chance that demons made by lesser mages might be able to return to human. Do you know who made you?”

“We were not made by a human,” said Mocha, “we were humans, up until recently. We became like this a few years ago when the moonlight that fell on this island turned purple.”

“Purple?” Levy questioned.

“I’ve never seen the moon look like that,” said Natsu.

“That is what everyone from the mainland say,” said Mocha, “but the moon is indeed purple on this island. Once it rises our bodies changed into demons.

“Look!” said Lector, pointing up at the sky, “The moon is up!”

The mages and the demon residents of the island all looked up, and saw that a nearly full lilac moon had risen up past the trees.

“And so it begins anew,” sighed Mocha, taking off his robe, as did many of the other residents of the island, revealing monstrous appendages of all shapes and sizes where normal human ones would normally be. Soon, the residents of the island began to surge with magic power, and soon they had morphed into demonic figures that looked to be combinations of man, beast, and in some cases even plants or rocks.

Once the transformation had completed, Mocha addressed the shocked mages, saying “Sorry for the scare, but when the moon is out, we change into these hideous demonic forms, and some of us, myself included, would have torn our robes had we not removed them. We will be fine once the moon sets, though some of our bodies will remain demonic, and, recently, some of us have started to not turn back, losing our souls in the process.”

“That’s horrible,” said Levy.

“That’s not the worse part,” continued Mocha, “In order to keep the village safe from their rampages, we have had to kill those who lose themselves. We can’t even build some kind of prison for them, because they just break out! I have lost my son to the transformation, so I beg you, please, destroy the moon!”

The mages gave it a moment’s pause before Natsu said, conviction almost palpable in his voice, “I swear on Fairy Tail’s name, we will find a way to turn you back.”

“Thank you,” said Mocha, tears beginning to well up in his eyes, “But please, it’s getting late, stay the night, you may begin your search in the morning.”

“Alright,” said Natsu.

Mocha lead the mages to an unoccupied building. He then left to go and take care of other business, and as soon as he was out of sight, Gajeel smacked Natsu in the back of the head.

“Ow!” said Natsu, “What was that for?”

“We’re not destroying the moon!” said Gajeel.

“I never said we were,” said Natsu, “Just that we were going to turn them back somehow. Anybody have any ideas?”

The mages looked around for a moment before Sting said, “How ‘bout we just go explore the island, try and find whatever it is that is turning people into demons?”

“Alright,” said Levy, “We don’t have any better ideas. Let’s go with that.”

The other mages voiced their agreements and went to bed. The next morning, they departed. They walked around the island for a few hours, before seeing a temple in the distance, which they decided to go and check out. Before they arrived, however, a massive mint-green mouse in a maid outfit leapt out of the bushes. It breathed out a noxious gas that smelled of rotten eggs. The stench made the dragon slayers double over, Natsu even vomited it was so bad. The mages began to flee, but the mouse gave chase and was upon them in a matter of moments.

Levy quickly cast “Solid Script: Mask” on her husband, who, now that he could breath, managed to hit the over-sized rodent with an iron pole. The blow struck with a resounding crunch, and was followed up with the mouse falling over backwards, unconscious with a trail of blood coming from its mouth and nose.

With their foe disposed of, the mages made it to the temple, or rather, the ruins, as the temple, which were spacious and grand in appearance, were in a state of great disrepair.

“Look at these pillars,” marveled Levy, “These marking date back to the time of the dragons.”

“Really?” said Lucy, looking at the runes with Levy.

“Hey, Gajeel,” said Levy, “Is this what I think it is?”

Gajeel walked over and looked at the runes. Reading aloud he said “Mondgottin, Reiniger von Fluchen. This is draconic, but what’s it doing here?”

“Did the dragons not have religion?” asked Levy.

“Not that I recall,” said Gajeel, “How about you guys?”

“I asked Grandine about it once,” said Wendy, “She said that dragons had no need for gods, since they were gods among all other people they met.”

“Seems about right,” said Natsu, “I think I recall Igneel laughing whenever he saw people worshipping their gods. He hid from them, so they never knew, but still.”

“But what does the rest of it say?” asked Levy. Her question was silenced however, as a monstrous roar ripped through the air.

“What was that!?” yelled Gajeel once it was quiet once again.

“It was a demon,” said Natsu, “And I’ll bet you a million jewel that it has something to do with the moon being purple,” said Natsu, his fists already aflame.

“Wonderful,” sighed Lucy, “I just got back from a job involving a demon, and now I have to deal with another one.”

“And this one’s S-class,” muttered Levy, “So this isn’t going to be an easy fight.”

The mages walked to the source of the sound, descending several flights of stairs as they went, and arrived at the edge of a cliff, standing before a monstrous reptilian creature similar in appearance to Elfman’s Beast Oversoul, only leaner, and much, much taller. Where Elfman was never more than ten meters, the monster before them stood fifty meters tall, even now, when it was on it’s knees.

Perhaps the only reason that the monster had not slain them was that it was restrained by silver chains as large as a man, leather bands as large as a tree, and a wooden beam that held it’s arms pinned behind it’s back that was larger than any tree the mages had ever seen.

The demon looked at the small group of mages that stood before it with a look that might have been surprise, and it said, in a voice as deep and as a canyon and as rubbly as an earthquake, “Master END, you have come to save me!”

“Err,” said Natsu, “yes, I am. Unfortuantly, I was only told that a demon had been captured, and where I might find it, but I was not told what their name was.”

“Oh it is no matter,” said the demon, “My name is Deloria, devil of misfourtune and disaster. I was captured by a demon hunter as I slept, and now they plan to use the power of the Moon Drop to destroy the magic keeping me alive. They are nearing compleation. I fear that I won’t last through the end of the night.”

“Hold that thought,” said Natsu as he and the other dragon slayers all turned toward the way they had come, “Someone’s coming, hide!”

And so the mages ducked behind some nearby stones. Out of the path they had come from a few moments earlier came three people, a man with dog ears and no shirt, a shorter man with large eyebrows, and finally a woman with pink pigtails wearing a corset. They approached the demon, who seemed to cower before them. The man with large eyebrows spoke to the demon, saying “Deloria, we heard you speaking to someone. Explain.”

The demon stuttered out “Well, well you see, you see the Moon Drip, the Moon drip is killing me, like you said it would, and now, now I’m starting to have halucinations, I thought I saw someone I know, and I spoke to them, that is all. Just the ravings of a dying demon.”

“Then why did you let out that roar earlier?” asked the woman in the corset.

“I touched my chains,” said the demon, “They’re made of silver, which burns demons.”

“Well then,” said the woman again, “Care to explain how Angelica died?”

“The mouse is dead?” said the demon, “Fucking finally, I’ve been waiting for her to kick the bucket for years now. That’s what you get for feeding a rat demon blood.”

“She didn’t die from that you monster!” yelled the woman, “She had her face smashed in!”

“I had nothing to do with the rat’s death, I swear!” the demon said, fear trembling on his voice like a rockslide.

“I don’t want to hear your lies,” said the woman turning to leave, “Come on, we should go and tell master Reitei what happened.”

“Hmm,” nodded her companions as they followed her out. Once they were out of hearing, Team Dragon Tail crawled out of their hiding spot, and Natsu turned to face Deloria.

“Listen here,” Natsu said, “I am lost, and don’t know where Tartarus is. Can you help me find it?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back babies! And I've planned out every single thing that will happen in this fic from now until the end of the Avatar Arc!
> 
> If this chapter seems long to you, that's because this chapter adapts about 2.5 chapters of the manga, where I usually only go with 2. There was just nowhere I could stop and have it not seem off, even where I did stop it.
> 
> As for the ending of Fairy Tail: i can still feel the void in my stomach. This was my first long running manga. I'm not sure how to feel.
> 
> Lastly, I removed any and all tags on the fic that either haven't been used or are only used briefly.


	17. Demon's Drop

“Of course!” said Deloria, “Just get me out and I can show you the way!”

“But let me guess,” sighed Natsu, “You’ll try and kill everyone on the island? Starting with your captors, then everyone else. And while we’re on the way, you’ll leave a path of complete and utter destruction in your wake?”

“Well,” said Deloria confused, “Of course I would. As I have said, I am the devil of destruction. Is something wrong with that?”

“Is it too much that one of these things wouldn’t try and destroy everything on the way to Tartarus?” groaned Natsu.

“If it’s not doing it just by existing, it’s doing it on purpose,” sighed Lucy, looking Natsu dead in the eyes.

“Hey, my destruction is accidental, and only when I fight,” Natsu defended.

“Result is the same,” finished Gajeel before turning to face the towering demon, “Looks like you’re not getting out of here then.”

 _ **“WHAT!?!”**_ roared the demon in rage, fear twinging on the edges, **“WHAT DO YOU MEAN! YOU PLAN TO LEAVE ME HERE TO DIE! BUT I AM YOUR KIN MASTER END!!! SO WHAT IF A FEW INSIGNIFICANT HUMAN LIVES WERE LOST, COMPAIRED TO US, THEY ARE NOTHING!!!”**

“That would be the case,” said Natsu, “If I wasn’t made from a human. And I’m the strongest demon, so what does that make you? An overgrown lizard bound and in need of a gag.”

“I hear footsteps!” said Wendy, turning to face the path the three people had gone up from.

“Let them,” said Gajeel, “They might know how to fix the moon.”

“But we hid before!” said Rogue, his and Sting’s faces sticking out from a shadow on the wall.

“We thought we might be taking Deloria,” said Levy, “Which they don’t want us to, so we hid to not cause a fight. Now we just want the moon to go back to normal, so it’s alright if they find us.”

“What was that!” yelled the pink haired woman in the corset as she ran into the room, her companions trailing behind her.

“Hi,” said Lucy, introducing the team, “We’re team Dragon Tail, from Fairy Tail, and we’re here on a job that a nearby village sent out. You wouldn’t happen to know why the moon turns purple on this island, do you?”

“We heard that you intend take Deloria away from here,” said the man in with the impressive eyebrows, striking a combat pose, “We cannot let you do that.”

“Didn’t you hear his roar?” asked Natsu, pointing at the demon behind him, “We were only planning on letting him go if he would behave himself and show us the way to Tartarus. But he has no intention of letting anything in his path live, so we decided not to.”

“What do you want with Tartarus?” asked the woman.”

“And why would Deloria know where it was?” asked the dog-eared man.

“Tartarus is one of the three biggest dark guilds,” explained Natsu, “It’s also called Zeref’s bookshelf, since every one of his demons are members. The strongest of his demons, END was created to kill him. We know where this demon is, and since it doesn’t destroy entire cities, at least on purpose, and is actually a good person, we’re trying to find Tartarus since they’ll probably know where Zeref is, if anyone knows.”

“So you’re working for a demon!” said the dog-eared man, his nails growing as he lunged at Natsu.

Natsu dodged out of the way, then hit him in the face with a palmthurst. The dog-eared man stumbled to the side, but was not harmed. “I’m not working for END,” Natsu used Fire Dragon’s horns, sprouting two horns of flames from his temples, as he said “I _am_ END. Now tell me how to turn the moon back to normal.”

A wave of blue-green energy blasted out of the hand of the man with large eyebrows toward Natsu, who easily leapt over it using wings of flames, landing with his foot on the man’s throught.

“You three couldn’t beat me in a three on one fight, and I have six mages to help me, plus five flying cats,” boasted Natsu, “Give up.”

Suddenly, Natsu’s eyes began to glow pink and he went limp for a moment before lifting his foot. He turned to face his teammates and lunged at them.

Four iron manacles latched themselves to Natsu’s arms and legs. The three opponents to Dragon Tail all looked and saw that they had come from Gajeel’s hands as he said “Natsu’s gone demon plan go.”

“Solid Script: Water!” said Levy, tracing the word in the air between her and Lucy, who stuck out one of her golden keys and said “Open, gate of the water-bearer: Aquarius!”

Suddenly, a tall, blue haired mermaid holding a large ceramic urn emerged from a floating puddle of water that spelled out ‘water’. This mermaid turned to look at the water she had come from and saw. She then turned to face Lucy and said “What did I say about summoning me in solid script!” as she shook her caster violently.

“Piiinnk haaaiiirrred giiirrrl is conntrrollling Natsuuu,” said Lucy as she was shaken.

Aquarius grunted in anger as she looked at the mage Lucy was referring to. “Fine, but I’ve got a date with Scorpio, so I need to leave to get ready.”

Lucy merely gave a thumb up before the spirit took her urn and sent a torrent of water hurtling toward the woman in the corset. The blast knocked the woman back into the cave wall, causing her to lose consciousness and a trickle of blood began to seep from the back of her head. Aquarius then faded away in a shower of glittering sparkles.

In the same instant, Natsu’s eyes stopped glowing, and he slammed his foot into the man with large eyebrows chest.

“We have a demon on the team,” Natsu said, “You really don’t think we have a contingency plan for if I went crazy? Anyway, Wendy, pink haired girl is hurt.”

“Already on it,” said Wendy, kneeling beside the pink haired woman. Wendy pulled the unconscious woman’s head away from the wall and began to heal her.

“I surrender.” said the dog-eared man, who had been pinned to the wall by Rogue’s shadow during the action.

“Of course you do,” said Sting, pulling his fist out of the wall inches from the man’s head.

“Now, we don’t want to be your enemies,” said Levy, once Rogue let the man down, “We just want to know if you know why the villagers on this island are turning into demons every night.”

“Oooori?” grunted the dog-eared man, “Yuka, isn’t the only village on the island made of demons?”

“Indeed,” grunted the man with large eyebrows, “You are being deceived, either intentionally or not, but that village has always been demons. Not of the books of Zeref, but still demons.”

“But that doesn’t make any sense,” said Lucy, “They cried real tears when they told us about the chief’s son.”

“HAHAHAHA!” laughed Deloria, “You fools! Lesser quality demons, such as any made by anyone but Zeref, will suffer if they intake my demonic energies. By killing me, you must be driving them mad!”

“Then I see the perfect solution,” said Natsu, lighting his fists on fire and stepping toward the demon.

“Err, END” said the dog-eared man, “When we tried to kill him like that he said that he’d just come back. Something about reforming in the waters of Hell.”

 

“Thank you for the info dog-man,” Natsu said with a smile, “And call me Natsu.”

“His name is Toby,” said Yuka, standing up, “But not only will killing him be counterproductive, this room was specifically chosen because it is rich in lacrima that has absorbed the holy prayers of patrons to the temple centuries ago. No demonic energies could possibly escape.”

Deloria let out a bellow of rage and a series of expletives, confirming that what Yuka said was true.

“Shall we go somewhere else,” asked Levy.

“Lets,” said Yuka, leading the mages up the stairs to a plane room. They all took a seat before Levy pulled out a book and began speaking with Yuka.

“So, what is the name of the spell you are using to kill Deloria?” Levy asked.

“It’s called Moon Drip,” explained Yuka, “It’s an ancient magic that was used by the worshipers of this island to dispel curses.”

“That doesn’t seem like something that would happen all that often,” said Sting.

“At the time,” said Yuka, “Magic knowledge was not as advanced. You either had to use alchemy, which meant memorizing the entire periodic table, as well as the chemical composition of everything around you, or else you could lay enchantments on things. Thus, when people fought, they placed curses on each other.”

“Alright,” said Levy, “and since only enchantments existed at the time, you bet that the magic would stick around for four-hundred years. From there you probably used ancient texts to recreate the method of worship that was used to trigger the enchantments.”

“You’re really smart,” Toby said in awe, “You guessed all that right.”

“Yes,” said Levy, “Now, if we could examine the runes for the enchantment, that would be wonderful.”

“Be quick with it,” said Toby, getting up, “The ritual can only be done with the moon out, so we need to sleep almost all day.”

“Alright!” said Natsu, bolting to his feet, “Let’s get going!”

What followed was three hours of watching Levy pour over runes and try and figure out what they did. At the end of it, she stood triumphantly and said “I think I found out what is causing the villagers trouble.”

“What is it?” said Gajeel, the only member of team Dragon Tail that was still awake.

“Moon Drip is old magic, older even then slayer magic if I’m right, and the time has taken something of a tole. It wasn’t pieces of Deloria zipping into the atmosphere and messing with them, it was pieces of Moon Drip’s etherios signature forming a cloud over the island. All we need to do is get rid of it, and they’ll go back to whatever their definition of normal is.”

“But if these cult people who are killing Deloria keep using it,” Gajeel said, “Some of it will reform. We’ll have to wait until they finish.

“They said that it should only take another day or two to finish him off,” Levy said, “That should be fine.”

“We’ve got the guild looking for us,” Gajeel said, “I’m honestly surprised that Ice Age hasn’t already found us.”

“It could be that they had to go on a job or something,” said Levy, somewhat optimistic.

“But then who’d they send after us? There are only seven people in the entire guild who are qualified to come after us, one of whom is the master, another hasn’t been seen in five years, and a third is fucking Mistogun.”

“That leaves us with the Fernandezes, team Ice Age, and the Rajinshu.” A shiver went up Levy’s back.

“I’m not sure which one is worse.”

“Hey,” said Levy, shoving into Gajeel, “Enough with this dark talk. We’re here now, no matter what happens, and for right now, nobody around is awake.”

“Are you suggesting what I think you are?” said Gajeel wryly.

Levy just responded by casting Solid Script: Ball-gag.


	18. Death of the Demon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Dragon Tail is on their first S-class job, and all they gotta do is kill a demon and wipe out the residue that the spell being used to do that is leaving. What could possibly go wrong?

Shortly before sunset, Dragon Tail awoke and saw that people in odd robes with crescent moons on the hoods began to arrive at the top of the temple. Lucy explained why they were there, which led the robed people to go about their business as normal, though they would occasionally look at the group of mages suspiciously. It wasn’t until a tall and muscular man in a helmet reminiscent to Deloria’s head came up that anyone really continued speaking to the mages after that explanation was given. “That is unfortunate, we did not intend to harm the village. Is here some way that we might be able to assist you?”

“After you have finished Deloria off,” said Levy, “we need to destroy the magic fingerprint of Moon Drip above the island. If you have some way of doing that, that would be very appreciated.”

The man in the helmet pondered for a moment before saying, “Now that I think about it, less and less progress has been made as time has gone on, at least visually. Could it be that this magic signature is weakening the amount of moonlight that we’re collecting?”

“It could be,” said Levy.

“In that case,” said the man before kneeling down and placing his hand on the ground. A massive pillar of stone erupted up out of the ground and soared upward. The pillar struck something high up in the sky, and the air above the mages began to crack and splinter, until after a moment, purple crystals began to fall from the sky.

“That should do it,” said the man, standing back up, “Everyone begin the ritual! We might be done with this before the end of the night!”

“What the…” Gajeel said, dumbfounded.

“I’m a powerful earth mage,” said the man in the helmet, placing his hand on the pillar, shrinking it down to the size of a pebble. “Something like that is relatively easy for me.”

“Nice,” said Natsu, “I’m going down to where Deloria is, I’ll let you know when he dies.”

“Why?” asked the man in a helmet as his robed followers began to stand in a circle and chant. A pillar of silver light shot down from the moon and went down a large hole in the roof of the temple. A thunderous roar of pain ruptured the air around the mages. The roar was so loud and sudden that the dragon slayers fell down in pain and surprise when it began. Rogue’s shadow engulfed his teammates, as well as the helmeted man, quieting the noise enough that the conversation could continue.

“That’s the loudest I’ve ever heard him scream,” said the helmeted man.

“That means that he’s going to kick the bucket soon,” said Natsu, “And why I want to go and watch him die is because he might have been lying about not knowing where Tartarus is, but he’s likely to spill if he knows he’s on his deathbed.”

“That’s sadistic,” said the man, “but probably true. And it’s also a good idea to have someone there to tell us when we’ve finished, so that we don’t waste our time.”

“Rogue, let us out,” said Natsu, a smirk spreading across his face.  
Rogue’s shadow returned to its original state and the helmeted man began to tend to the ceremony. Natsu and Happy went down to the room where Deloria was staying, thankful that he had stopped roaring.

When they arrived, they saw that he had shrunken considerably and his proportions had begun to distort as bubbles swelled up from beneath his skin and pop, leaving massive holes in the monster’s hide.

“You sure you don’t know anything?” asked Natsu, sitting on a rock. Deloria just looked at him, his eyes glazing over and foggy.

Natsu sighed and turned to face Happy and began to make idle conversation with his son. Together, the two waited for the inevitable. Twenty minutes later, Deloria had melted down to the point where he was too small to even fit in the bonds that had been placed on him. A bubble of melting flesh burst on the demon’s back, knocking him forward, causing his head to hit the cliff that Natsu was sitting on. This impact caused the skull of the demon, once strong enough to withstand mountains crumbling on top of him, to shatter and break, spilling blood onto the cliff. The blood splashed forward and coated Natsu’s side. Startled, Natsu bolted up and tried to wipe the blood off him. Happy flew up and asked “Dad are you ok!?”

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Natsu sighed, relaxing, “It just startled me. Let’s go tell them what happened.”

“Ok,” said Happy, a hint of doubt in his voice as the two left the room.

When they arrived back at the top of the temple, Gajeel bolted up and said “What the fuck happened!”

“Deloria died,” Natsu explained nonchalantly, “He fell and hit his head on the cliff I was standing on, and so I got some of his brain on me. It’s fine, though I might have ruined these clothes.”

“What!” shouted the man in the helmet, “quickly, get the blood off of him!”

“What?” said Natsu, “It’s just some blood.”

“It’s demon blood Salamander!” yelled Gajeel, “You remember that rat? It was like that because it ate demon blood.”

“Oh,” said Natsu, understanding dawning on his face, “Shit.”

Levy quickly shot Natsu with a blast of water, cleaning most of the blood from him. Beneath the blood, Natsu’s skin had begun to take on a scaly texture and turn a dark shade of red.

Looking at this, Natsu said “Lucy, call out Aries, she should be able to knock me out long enough for either the effects to where off or you guys to find a way to fix this.”

“It doesn’t wear off,” said the man in the helmet, “The rat that you mentioned had only a single drop spilled on her shortly after we captured the beast, and that was five years ago.”

“Well I’m a demon myself,” said Natsu, growing a small horn underneath where the blood had been, “So that might change things. In any case, Lucy, Aries, now.”

“Open, gate of the ram: Aries!” said Lucy, calling out a pink haired girl with sheep horns in a white fluffy dress. “Natsu got demon blood on him, we don’t know what’s happening, put him to sleep so we can figure out what’s happening to him.”

“Wool cocoon!” said the spirit, sending out a blast of pink wool from her hands that wrapped itself around Natsu.

The moment the wool touched Natsu’s scales, it burst into flames.

“Well this has gone from bad to worse,” said Natsu.

“Demon doll!” said the pink haired girl in the corset. Natsu’s eyes began to glow pink and his body stiffened, though his scales and horn continued to grow. “This should hold him for a while. You guys figure out how to fix this,” she said.

“Aries, go back,” said Lucy. The spirit said sorry as she disappeared into a shower of golden light. Lucy pulled out a silver key and said “Open, gate of the southern cross: Crux!”

An elderly looking man with a cross for a head appeared and said “Hello, madam Lucy! What is it that you need?”

Gajeel proceed to gab the spirit’s collar and point him in the direction of Natsu and said “How do we fix the scales.”

“Right!” said Crux, “One moment,” and with that he appeared to go to sleep, a large snot bubble even coming from his nose. After only an instant, he popped back awake.

“You’ve figured it out already?!” said Lucy, “That was fast.”

“As it turns out,” Crux said, “What is happening to Master Natsu is not anything that is detrimental to his health or well-being. The demon blood is merely unlocking something that the demons of the books of Zeref call their Etherios Form, a form in which the demon has access to enhancements that they ordinarily do not, though it does drain their stamina to stay in the form.”

“Unfortunately,” continued Crux, “Natsu will not be able to control himself in this form without training. Whenever he transforms, he will go into a blinding rage and attack everything and everyone, regardless of what they mean to him. It is also highly likely that he will be unable to control _when_ he transforms. He will likely have a trigger, a word or color perhaps, regardless of what it is, when this trigger is present, he will transform, and the only ways to turn him back will be to knock him unconscious or to expose him to a counter trigger, which will most likely have a strong association with positive emotions with Natsu.”

“How does he train himself then?” asked Gajeel, “And more importantly, how do we figure out what his trigger and counter trigger are?”

“His trigger will most likely be something related to Zeref,” Crux explained, “Or has a strong connection to negative emotions. Beyond that, you’ll have to figure out his trigger and counter trigger through experimentation. He can train to control his Etherios form by spending time in it and trying to control it, and unfortunately that is the only way. Likewise, he can only train to control his transformations through sheer force of will.”

“After he’s mastered his transformations,” asked Lucy, “Will his triggers still affect him?”

“They will,” said Crux, “Though the effect will diminish over time and again, he can train himself to resist it, though that is the most difficult one to control. Also, something that I have not yet mentioned, it could be possible that Natsu might have more than one trigger for each. Some of these triggers will likely be stronger or weaker than other triggers. He may also have a different number of triggers for each transformation, for example he might have three for going into the form, one which works instantly, one which takes a moment, and one which will take several hours of constant exposure, but only one for leaving, which may rip him out of it in an instant.”

After that, everyone was silent for a long time.

Lucy sent Crux back, and everyone just shuffled around uncomfortably.

Nearly a whole minute passed before anyone said anything, but when someone finally did say something, it was Gajeel.

“We fucked up.”

“Yeah,” agreed Levy, nodding, “We really did.”

“I don’t wanna do S-class jobs anymore,” said Sting.

“Frosch thinks so to,” said the green cat.

“Alright,” said Lucy, “Let’s go back to the village, tell them we’ve finished, and get back. No doubt the master will be furious with us.”

The Fairy Tail mages nodded in agreement and did as Lucy had said. When they told the Village what had happened, they saw that the man who had brought them over had flown up and out of sight. While the demon villagers were celebrating, Natsu was still under the control of Sherry, the doll mage.

Natsu’s entire body had become covered in red scales, and had begun to radiate such intensive heat that if he stood to close to straw, it began to ignite. He had grown two horns from his forehead, and a pair of wings almost twice as long as Natsu was tall. In addition, his hands and feet had grown much larger, roughly the size of his head, with their digits becoming as long as Happy’s tail.

After waiting for Natsu to tire from the stress of his Etherios form and turn back, Sherry returned to the temple, and Dragon Tail went to the beach with one of the demons so that they could return to the mainland. When they arrived at the beach, however, they were greeted by the Rajinshu giving them looks of sheer and unadulterated rage.

“I know you’re gonna read us the riot act,” said Gajeel as soon as he saw them, “but we’ve already completed the job, and we’re not doing another S-class job again for a long time.”

“You better not,” said Laxus, grabbing the dragon slayer by shoulder, “I only told Natsu I’d fight him to try and get him to become an S-class mage, not actually do this you idiots.”

Gajeel looked at the lightning mage. An uncharacteristic look of complete and utter regret was plastered onto Gajeel’s face.

“We are never doing this again,” said Gajeel.

“What happened?” asked Mira.

“I’ll explain on the way back,” said Lucy, handing Natsu’s unconscious body off to Happy and Carla, “Right now, let’s just get back on your ship and head back to the guild.”

“Alright,” said Freed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late post guys, I got back from a camping trip my family roped me into today, and then we spent basically all day celebrating my B-day.
> 
> By the way, happy birthday to me! I turned 19 yesterday!
> 
> Please review, it helps me to improve!


	19. Declaration of War

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Dragon Tail and the Rajinshu return to Magnolia from Galuna Island to find that a rival guild decided to do some, renovations, to the Fairy Tail Guild hall.

“We’re back!” yelled Natsu as he and his fellow mages walked into Magnolia.

“Woohoo!” Happy called along with his father.

“I wouldn’t be too happy if I were you,” said Lucy, “We don’t know what will make you shift.”

“Oh come on,” said Natsu, a wide grin on his face, “You heard what the cross said, it would take something that upsets me to shift, there’s nothing in all of Magnolia that could do that.”

“He also said that something related to Zeref could do it,” pointed out Carla.

“And the only things in all of Magnolia that the creep has ever touched are right here in front of me,” said Natsu, turning around to face the dragon slayers and Mira.

“He might have had something to do with the creation of the Celestial Spirits as well,” said Freed, “so be careful when you and Lucy go on jobs together from now on.”

“Oh that reminds me,” said Natsu, “Lucy, you got a crystal key after that job, right? Which one was it?”

“The king!” smiled Lucy, momentarily forgetting the dred of what had happened on the job, “I can’t make a contract with him yet though, I can’t use that much magic power at once.”

“Then what’s the point in having him?” asked Gajeel.

“I might be able to summon him in the future!” said Lucy, slightly agitated, “I can always train myself to get stronger, and then I’ll be able to summon him, and the keys I already have will be able to get stronger than they already are.”

“Gihi” snickered Gajeel, “I’d like to see the day when any of your spirits can hold their own against me.”

“Aquarius and Leo can already kick your ass,” said Laxus, “Anyway, let’s get to the guild so that you guys can be punished. I’m gonna be pissed if the old man doesn’t give you _that_ after that stunt.

Team Dragon Tail paled. “Gods no,” said Levy.

“Anything but _that!_ ” said Sting, who had to be restrained by Mira to prevent him from running away.

“Well, off we go!” Mira said cheerily.

As the mages made their way through the town, the dragon slayers overheard the conversations the civilians were having.

“Something happened at the guild,” said Wendy, breaking out into a run, “Something bad. We need to get going. Now.”

The other mages followed suit, Rogue even going so far as to drop into his shadow to get to the hall before the others.

When they got there, they were not greeted by the sight of the nearly century old guild hall, the tallest building in for blocks around, laying there, reduced to cinders and ash. The only hint as to what the building once was being the sign that had been placed over the front door had been left mostly intact by the flames.

“Who did this,” growled Laxus, lightning crackling around his body.

“I don’t know, but I’m going to fucking murder them,” said Rogue, shadows whipping around his body, “Nobody fucks with Fairy Tail.”

“Watch your mouth Rogue,” said Makarov, walking up to the group, “You are much too young to begin swearing.”

“Somebody burned the guild down!” roared Sting.

“But we can’t make them pay just yet,” said Gajeel.

“We are the strongest wizard guild in the country, if not the entire continent,” he explained, “and based on how the event actually managed to get this far, I’d say that nobody was around when it happened, leaving no wounded, but also no witnesses. Luckily, we know that the only people who have the reason to piss us off would be Raven Tail and Phantom Lord, since both were founded with the express purpose of getting us to disband the guild. That said, Raven is a gray guild right now, and their master probably doesn’t want to risk being labeled as dark, so Phantom would probably be the only group with the balls to actually do it. This means that this is either the actions of a single person going against the wishes of the guild, or a task the master of Phantom Lord specifically ordered them to do. If it’s the latter, then this is likely a declaration of war, which if we even so much as get involved in in any way, combined with our reputation for destroying any city we step foot in, the magic council will have more than enough of a reason to force us to disband, and make a lot of us criminals in the process. If it’s the former, they probably burned any evidence that there was, so unless we figure out the ether signature from the fire, if this even was magic fire, we can’t even point to them and say ‘one of you did this, pay up’, so we’re screwed regardless.”

Everyone who wasn’t in Dragon Tail just looked at the iron slayer in awe. “What?” he said, “I’m married to the smartest person in the guild, you really don’t think that some of it would rub off on me?”

“Still,” said Freed, “You sounded like a detective in a mystery novel for a minute there. That just seems so, odd, coming from your mouth.”

Levy then had to physically restrain Gajeel from punching Freed in the face.

Makarov cleared his throat, “As Gajeel pointed out, while we know it was Phantom Lord, we have no evidence, and so we cannot take vengeance in any way. As such, while I had planned for your punishment to be merely a smack on the head, I understand that you took the pay from the job?”

“Yes sir,” said Levy, handing over their pay from the job, “The reward was seven million jewel.”

“This should cover the costs to make a new guild hall,” said Makarov, “and perhaps even make improvements while we’re at it. In the mean-time, we will be working out of the patio of my home, so please, for the love of all that is holy, don’t mess it up.”

“Translation,” said Mira, dark purple energy surrounding her as she looked at Natsu, “If you break anything, I will break you.”

“Understood,” muttered the dragon slayers.

That night, the dragon slayers were having a family dinner. “Did you do something different with the steak Gajeel?” asked Natsu.

“No, maybe your piece just got more flavoring or something,” Gajeel said.

“Well I like it,” Natsu continued, eating his steak, “So why would Phantom Lord attack us? I know they were founded to screw with our founder because of some grudge, but still, they’ve never done this before.

“They probably got wind of the fact that three of our top teams were out at the same time,” said Carla, “It’s not exactly a secret that their master has been upset that they’re forced to play second fiddle to us all the time.”

“Well to bad!” said Lector, “We’ve got three wizard saints!”

“But their master is also a wizard saint,” Happy said, “And I think he’s even a higher ranked one than any of ours.”

“That’s right,” said Levy, “Their Master Jose is ranked as the fifth strongest wizard in the entire continent. Ultear is ranked six, Master is seventh, and Jellal is ninth.”

“How is Ultear a higher rank than Master?” asked Sting, “He could beat her no matter how many times they fought.”

“True,” said Gajeel, “but Ultear has Time Arc, which, while it can’t be used on humans, makes her effectively immune to almost all harmful magic, since she can make the spell age backwards to a time where it wasn’t cast, so long as it doesn’t effect a human. And for those, she’s a master of Ice Make, which is really only limited by the temperature as well as the casters expertise, magic power, and imagination. Ultear has a solution to most of that: time magic prevents her ice from melting until she lets it, she’s been using the magic since she was six years old, so she knows what she’s doing, and has so much magic power that when she was born she had to go to a doctor to make sure she didn’t explode.”

“That actually makes sense why she’s above the master then,” said Sting in awe, “But then the question is how could she be beaten?”

“Simple,” said Levy, “encase her in a moving prison that makes sure that no air can enter or exit, and that she always remains at it’s center, hit her before she has time to react to it, use magic to boost your strength and just hit her, just wear her out until she can’t keep preventing you from attacking, or, not that anyone can do this, master Time Arc to the same level or better than her, and counter her counter.”

“What makes Ultear terrifying to face is that, no matter how you do it, it all comes back to one of those,” said Lucy, “I hear that a lot of the wizard saints are like that when it comes to a fight, you can beat them, but only if you can do it in one of five ways. Most of them the same from saint to saint.”

“What are the ways you can beat Jose?” asked Lector, now afraid.

“We don’t know what magic he uses,” said Carla, “Until we know what he can do, we don’t know how to fight him.”

“Oh,” said Lector, somewhat crest fallen, “We’re in trouble then.”

“Only if we go to war with them,” said Natsu, “but don’t worry, Master knows not to fight him.”

The following morning, Dragon Tail were having lunch outside of Makarov’s porch when Jet came running up and said “Guys come quick, the park, Phantom attacked.”

Everyone collectively stood up, flipping more than one table in the process, and booked it to the park as fast as they could.

When they arrived, they were greeted by the gruesome sight of Heaven’s Eight being crucified to the trees by earthen shackles. Branded onto Sorano’s abdomen was the distinctive ominous swirl of Phantom Lord.

When Makarov arrived, he took one look at them and said in a voice rot with sheer unbridled fury, “Burning our hall down I could handle, but no parent can look at their children like this without their blood boiling.”

The wizard saint crushed the staff he had been holding as he said “This. Means. War.”


	20. Battle of Oak Town

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After team Heaven's Eight were crucified by Phantom Lord, Fairy Tail has declared war on them. The first act is an assault on their main guild hall. This can't possibly go wrong!

In oak town, the day after Heaven’s Eight were crucified, the members of Phantom Lord were celebrating the demise of Fairy Tail.

“Those damned fairies got their asses burned big time!” said one.

“That’s not all!” said another, draining his flagon of ale, “I heard Sol attacked one of their teams!”

The members of Phantom Lord laughed hearty drunken laughs when they heard this. Their laughs were cut short, however, when their front door exploded. When the smoke had cleared, the mages were terrified to see that the entirty of Fairy Tail was standing where there was once a door. Right in the front was their master, as well as the famous Team Fernandez, all four of which had a look on their face of pure unbridled murderous intent, though the other mages were not much happier.

“Remember,” said Laxus, “We’re already breaking the law, don’t make it worse than you have to.”

“These bastards brought the fight to a monster,” said Natsu, flames licking the air all around him, “Don’t think for a moment that mortal laws will hold me back.”

Following her lead, the rest of the Fairy Tail mages attacked the mages. It was a whirlwind of magic as the two most powerful guilds on the continent fought. Flames roared, lightning crackled, ice surged, and the earth shook as the battle raged.

At one point, a group of Phantom Lord mages rushed Makarov, only for the wizard saint to grow to be ten meters high and squash them beneath his boot. He called out “Jose! Show yourself you coward! Let’s settle this feud here and now!”

Suddenly, a tidal wave poured down from the ceiling. The force knocked most of the mages from both sides off their feet. The water began to congeal in the center of the room and took on a human form. The water looked like a woman with long blue hair like a waterfall and curves like the waves of the ocean. She began to speak, saying “Where are Mistogun and Gildarts? You underestimated us. I do not take kindly to that.” She extended her hand and sent out a blast of water, nearly striking Makarov in the chest, but a blast of fire from Natsu’s mouth evaporated it.

“I see Phantom’s got themselves a water nymph,” said the demon, a smirk spreading across his face, “Well we’ve got a demon. I am your foe, water bitch.”

“Very well,” said the water nymph, rushing forward, a spriling torrent of water coming from her legs to propel her toward Natsu.

Natsu rushed forward, saying “I’ve got her, saints get to the top floor! Jose’s probably there!”

“We’ll go tear him a new one,” said Makarov, his face a stern dark mask as he and the wizard saints, as well as the Fernandezes, all went up.

Natsu sent out a Fire Dragon’s Roar, forcing the water nymph to dodge around the attack. She pushed through and blasted Natsu with water. Natsu went to boil it, but the water suddenly changed shape and enveloped him, trapping him in a bubble of water.

Lyon quickly placed his hand on the outside of the bubble, freezing it before turning it into a flock of birds, which he then sent at the water nymph. With a flick of her wrist, a blade of water shattered all of the birds.

Suddenly, Jellal, Ultear, and Makarov all fell from the ceiling, unconscious. Erza and Simon also fell, but they were at least awake.

“It seems that Aria has finished his part of the plan,” said the nymph, “your strongest mages are now all unable to even move.”

Laxus yelled out “Freed, runes!”

“On it!” called Freed. Stabbing his rapier into the ground, ruins ran through the stones, and in a flash of purple light, all of the Fairy Tail mages suddenly found themselves back in the remains of the Fairy Tail guild hall.

“What the fuck just happened!” yelled Natsu.

“Teleportation runes,” explained Freed, “I had prepared some before we left, in case the battle went south, and it did indeed.

“Oh come on!” called Gajeel, “We could still win!”

“We can’t beat Jose without a wizard saint,” said Mira, “We knew going in that this was a long shot, you shouldn’t be surprised that we had an escape plan.”

“Now Wendy, hurry up and get over here!” said Laxus, “See if you can figure out what happened.”

“Right!” said Wendy, running up and placing her hands on Makarov’s chest. Her hands began to glow lime green before she stopped and clasped her hand to her mouth.

“It’s, it’s magic deficiency syndrome,” said Wendy, her eyes wide and face ashen, “Take them to Porlyusica! I can’t help them, I don’t know how.”

“It wasn’t Jose,” grunted Erza, “It was Aria, one of their S-class mages. He’s so weak I didn’t even notice he was there until he was right behind us. He must have used some spell to drain our magic power.”

“Wait,” said Wendy, “Did he use wind magic?”

“I think so,” grunted Simon.

“I know what this is then,” said Wendy, standing up. “He used an eye-based wind spell called Drain. It drains the magic power of the mage with more magic power and puts it into the body of the one with less, leaving the stronger with as much magic power as the weaker had, even if the caster had more magic power than the target.”

“How do we fix this?” asked Lisanna.

“If Aria is knocked unconcious,” Wendy explained, “He’ll release all the magic power he’s stolen and go back to the mage it came from.”

“What about sleep?” asked Freed.

“Only magically induced sleep,” said Wendy, “If he falls asleep naturally he gets to keep the power.”

“Why do you know so much about this spell?”

“I know the spell,” said Wendy”

“So to get their power back,” said Laxus, “We just need to beat the shit out of this one really weak dude?”

“He’s not weak anymore,” said Freed, “He stole the magic power of three wizard saints. He’s probably the strongest mage in the country right now.”

“Right,” said Laxus before turning to face Canna “Cana, find Mistogun! He’s got the best shot at being able to beat this Aria guy. Everyone else, prepare for Phantom Lord to attack.”

A paper airplane soared through the air and landed on the table next to Laxus. Picking it up and unfurling it, he read it and smiled.

“Good news everyone,” Laxus said, lightning lighting the paper aflame, “I just got word from a friend that works for the council. Because of what Phantom did to start this war, they’ve been declared a dark guild. And, to make it even better, the council gave us a job “Crush Phantom Lord.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You know I'm back in college when I wrote this entire chapter the day I published it.
> 
> Anyway, as always, please remember to leave comments telling me how to improve in the future!


	21. Gray vs. Totomaru

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Phantom Lord has attacked Fairy Tail's Guild Hall! In a desperate attempt to stop them from destroying the town, Gray must face off against one of the Elemental 4, The Great Fire Totomaru!

No sooner had Laxus declared that Phantom was a dark guild then the earth began to rumble.

“Wh-what is that!” yelled Lector, looking out over the bay.

Perhaps a quarter mile away stood a massive stone building with six metal legs jutting out of its sides. As it walked toward the smoldering ruins of Fairy Tail, a flag with the thorny spiral of Phantom Lord waved in the wind atop it.

“I never imagined they’d attack us like this,” said Laxus, a look almost resembling fear on his face.

“Laxus, what should we do!” yelled Warrod, not even trying to hide his mortal terror.

A mechanical thunk emanated from the walking building moments before it stopped moving.

“HIT THE DECK!” yelled Laxus, diving over top of Mira and Freed.

“Ice make: Great Wall!” shouted Gray, Lyon and Meredy in unison. Three walls of ice, each a different color, materialized before Phantom Lord’s building, which shot off a blast of magic as wide as the building it was being fired from was tall.

The blast hit the first wall, not even slowing down as it melted the barrier.

It hit the second, shattering the wall like glass.

Finally, it struck the third wall, and both ice and magic exploded, leaving nothing behind but a small crater on the cliff face.

The three ice mages, and indeed the rest of Fairy Tail just paused for a moment in sheer shock.

“It held,” said Meredy, tears beginning to well up in her eyes, “we stopped it.”

“Yeah,” said Gray, “But only barely, and we have no idea how many more times we’re going to have to put up with that.”

“And that took a lot out of me,” panted Lyon, “I might be able to do that another, two, maybe three times.”

“So you managed to survive,” said an unfamiliar voice coming from the building in the bay, “That’s unfortunate. That would have been the quick death. Now you will have to suffer in the fifteen minutes until my Jupiter cannon is reloaded.”

Suddenly, a mass of figures in dark cloaks flew from the windows of the building, heading for the shore.

“What?!” said Natsu, “They’re sending out soldiers, even though they’re gonna fire that laser again!?”

“Those cloaks aren’t human,” said Levy, “Jose must be a Shade user. They’re just ghosts he made out of magic.”

“Are you sure it’s Jose’s doing?” asked Gajeel.

“Either that or Aria,” Levy said, “It would take a lot of magic power to make that many.”

“We gotta do something about Jupiter,” said Laxus.

“I’ll do it,” said Gray and Natsu in unison, “What, you’ll do it!? As if! I got this! Stop copying me damnit!”

Mira gave them both a look, shutting them up before she said, “Both of you go, and hurry, we don’t know how long we’ll be able to hold them off.”

“I’ll go to!” said Wendy, “If you run into Aria, I’m probably the best person to fight him.”

Gray and Natsu nodded. They ran toward the edge of the cliff and jumped. Natsu called out “Happy! Frosche!”, and the cats flew up and grabbed the fire and ice mages, carrying them to the castle. Wendy followed after in Carla’s paws.

They landed on the muzzle of the cannon and Natsu fired off a Fire Dragon’s Roar, yet there was no apparent damage.

“Fuck how hard is this thing?!” yelled Natsu.

“Let’s go inside,” said Happy, “there’s probably something we can smash inside it.”

“Are you crazy!” shrieked Carla, “We are not going into that thing! What if they fire it off again!”

“Do we have a choice?” said Gray, diving into the muzzle.

Carla just fumed for a moment before flying into the weapon.

They quickly arrived in a large room with a massive lacrima in the center, tubes and machines connecting to it.

“Holy cow!” said Wendy, “That’s the biggest lacrima I’ve ever seen!”

“Well don’t get to attached,” said Natsu, “We gotta break it if we wanna stop the canon.

“I won’t, let you do that,” said a man with salt and pepper hair wearing a pink ninja outfit, sitting atop the lacrima.

“A guard!” said Happy.

“Who cares!” said Natsu, rushing forward with his hand aflame, “We’ll just get rid of him!”

“Natsu no!” cried Carla, “You can’t win against him!”

“Oh yeah?” said Natsu, “Watch me!”

Natsu proceeded to punch himself in the face with his flaming fist.

“Listen to the cat,” said the man, standing up, “My name is Totomaru the Great Flame. No fire mage can ever defeat me.”

“Tsk, I don’t have time for this,” said Natsu, “Gray! You handle him! Me and Wendy ’ll go find Aria!”

“Right!” said Gray, casting aside his shirt as the dragon slayers ran out of the room.

“You’re not going to stop them?” asked Gray.

“I was merely told to not let anyone break Jupiter,” explained Totomaru, “Not to stop intruders.”

“You don’t want to do this, do you?”

“Who would _want_ to be a criminal? I was raised by this damned guild, and I don’t even care about its feud. I’m only doing this cause Jose ‘ll turn me into one of his shades if I don’t.”

“Wait, what!” said Gray, “Those shades are people!?”

“You’ll note that there are only five people in our guild hall,” sighed Totomaru, “Jose and the element four, the five strongest mages Phantom has ever had. Look, you’ve got nine minutes before this thing fires again, do you really want to waste any more time talking?”

“Shit, you’re right,” said Gray, “Sorry about this then. Ice Make: Geyser!”

“I’ll take no offence,” said Totomaru, lazily hurling a ball of red flames at the ice spires that Gray made, melting them almost instantly.

“Wait, was it you who burned our guild down?”

“Again, I’m sorry. Jose would have killed me if I didn’t.”

“You still burned down my guild hall,” said Gray as the air in the room cooled, “You don’t just do that and expect bad things not to happen to you. Ice Make: Lane!”

Several spires of ice launched out of Gray’s hands, propelling themselves toward Totomaru, who merely enveloped himself in red flames, melting them.

“Ice does not work against my red flames,” he said, “They will melt anything.”

“I know that,” said Gray, “Look where you’re standing.”

Totomaru was confused, until he felt a liquid seep into his shoes. He jerked his head to look down, and saw that he was standing in a sizable puddle where there had once been the top of the lacrima.

“But don’t worry,” said Gray, “I’ll cool it off for you. Ice Make: Hammer!”

A large ice hammer appeared above Totomaru, who was still looking at Gray, and did not notice it until it smashed right into him, breaking the lacrima beneath him.

Gray walked up to the nearly unconscious Totomaru and showed him his wrist before saying “Where can I find her?”

“Right shoulder,” was all the fire mage said before slipping into unconsciousness.

“Right shoulder?” Gray wondered aloud before quickly turning around, “Nothing there. What does he mean by right-”

Then the room began to tilt. Gray fell over to one of the walls and understanding dawned on him. “I’m in a mech,” he sighed, “Wonderful. Now I just need to find out where I in it I am.”

Gray just walked through a door at random and began his search for the right shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about not updating yesterday guys, I completely forgot.


	22. Emergence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Gray is facing off against one of the Elemental 4, Wendy, Natsu, and three of the cats find another!

While Gray was handling the fire mage, Natsu, Wendy, and their cats ran down a corridor.

“Where is that Aria guy?!” said Natsu.

“Je serais plus préoccupé par l'homme sous les pieds,” said a voice under them, as the ground Wendy stood on bulged up. She had just enough time to jump off of it before the bulge burst and out emerged a slim man with a monocle and small pointed mustache. He leaned over so much that it seemed his spine would break as he said “I am Sol, the Great Earth. You may call me Monseur Sol. I advise that you turn around now and depart before I must kill you.”

“You and what army?” said Natsu, igniting his fists and charging the man.

Sol easily dodged out of the way, saying “I believe your mother-in-law has passed?” as he sent out a wave of sand.

Natsu’s eyes grew wide as he sent a blast of fire at the sand, turning it to glass.

“And what of your own parents?” said Sol, launching a barrage of stones the size of Happy at the Fairy Tail mages. The cats managed to fly out of their path, but they struck home on Natsu and Wendy, sending them flying backwards.

“Dad!” called Happy, he and Frosche flying to Natsu’s side once the fire mage had landed.

“I’m fine,” he said, standing up, “But I wanna know how you know this.”

“I know all about you, no, more than that, my head contains details pertaining to every member of Fairy Tail!”

“You underhanded bastard!” said Natsu, sending out a blast of flame from his mouth.

Sol slunk back into the ground, avoiding the flames. He reemerged and bent his body like taffy, wrapping himself around Natsu.

“Oh, are you perhaps still upset that you are responsible for the death of Layla Heartfillia?”

“Why don’t you shut the hell up, ‘Muncher Sol’,” Natsu said, trying to pull the man off of him.

“It’s Monseur, actually,” said Sol, unwrapping himself and kicking Natsu with a stone encrusted foot. “Have we already reached the finale?”

“Not if I’ve got anything to say about it!” said Wendy, running up to Natsu. Before she got there, however, a stone wall appeared around her, bending itself so that the only way she could flee was toward Sol.

“Unfortunately mademosielle, you do not have anything to say about it,” said Sol, “In fact, I think I should finish you with my strongest technique. Platre Sonata!”

From between the bricks making up the building, flecks or mortar pealed away, conjealing into a massive fist that went soaring at Wendy. The impact sent her flying through the wall Sol had made, as well as the wall of the building.

The cats flew down to try and catch her, and nearly managed to escape being burned to a crisp by a torrent of flames blue as the sky and golden as the sun that erupted from the hole in the wall. A roar ripped through the air and suddenly Sol’s body was flying through the air toward Magnolia.

“Looks like one of END’s trigger is seeing you get hurt,” Carla said to Wendy.

Quietly they flew up to the floor and landed. Standing there, waiting for them was the monstrous visage of Natsu’s demonic form. While his face had not changed, his teeth were now sharpened to daggers, and his eyes slit like a snake’s. Beyond his face, Natsu’s entire body had been covered in dark, blood red scales. Two horns of bone and flame had replaced his hair, just as two massive sinewy wings had sprouted from his back. His hands and feet had grown larger than normal, and his fingers and toes had sharpened into talons.

END glared at the cats and Wendy as he said in a voice as calm as a blade “Despite what the cross said, I am still lucid in this form, though my personality changes wildly. While I have all of Natsu’s memories, I am not he. I for one am much more eloquent in my speech, and more intelligent in my actions. While it is true that I would feel no remorse in your slaughter, I will not end you now. This is entirely because of the fact that you are assisting Natsu in finding Zeref. If that ever changes, or you become more of a hastle than you’re worth, I will not hesitate to end you. Something else to keep in mind is that, just as Natsu can train to transform into me at will while still in control of our body, I can do the same.”

“Now,” continued the demon, turning to leave, “I will go and find the master of Phantom Lord. If he falls, then the shades currently attacking Phantom Lord will cease to exist, and the full might of your guild will be able to storm this facility. I advise that, as not all of the mages can fly, you all return to the ruins of your guild hall. If I run into Aria, I can easily off him, so there is no longer a reason for Wendy to stay. In fact, you’d just be a nuisance and get in my way.”

And without another word, the demon left.

“I think we should listen to him,” said Wendy, “He’s serious about killing us.”

“Do you really think he can defeat Jose?” asked Happy.

“He was created by the most powerful dark mage ever,” said Wendy, “if anyone can beat Jose, it’s him.”

Carla grabbed her mother and together the four of them flew back to the battle that was raging back on land, just as the first raindrops began to fall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is anyone even reading this anymore?
> 
> If you are, please comment. I'm still probably going to update this, but that's almost entirly because I'm planning on writing and trying to publish a novel based on this world, though with major changes to the canon.


	23. Two Down, Two to Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gray and END have already take out two of the Elemental Four, now all that's left is Water and Air, and they've got a special surprise for each of them.

Gray climbed up a ladder and opened a hatch. He emerged out onto the top of the giant collosis and looked around. He saw what looked to be the head of the building on one side, looking over the cliff face that housed the ruins of the guild hall.

It had begun to rain shortly before the building had become a mech, and based on how heavy it was, it didn’t seem natural.

“Shi Shi Sho,” said a voice behind Gray. He turned and saw the woman he was looking for, holding a bright pink umbrella, which clashed horably with her blue hair and outfit.

“I am Juvia of the Element Four,” she said, “If you wish to fight phantom, she is your worst option, given the weather. She’s a water elemental.”

“Are you an actual elemental, or are you just a user of water magic?” Gray asked, “I’ve run into some of the mages before, and actual elementals are really rare is why I ask.”

In response, Juvia turned her body into water, “No mage Juvia has encountered could turn their body into an element.”

“That’s fair enough,” said Gray, sitting on the raised edge of the shoulder, “I’ve always been curious as to how you guys formed.”

“Juvia is unsure herself, but she thinks it has something to do with the increase in magic in the air that has been going on for the last ninety years. It’s the same reason that the timers exist.”

“Speaking of timers, do you guys have them?”

Juvia scoffed before saying “How rude! Of course Juvia has a timer! All rational beings do! Here, Juvia will show you!”

Juvia pulled up her sleeve and saw her timer. A look of upset understanding crossed her face as she looked at Gray.

“That has got to be the rudest way to tell someone you’re their soulmate Juvia has ever heard.”

“Sorry, but like I said, elementals are actually pretty rare. I actually don’t know all that much about you, not that that’s going to not change soon. By the way, my sister was one of the people that Aria almost killed. Did you know about the plan?”

“Juvia must admit, she did know about the plan, but she only went along with it because if she did not, Jose would have boiled her. She doesn’t even want to stay in Phantom Lord, not that anyone does.”

“I heard from the fire guy that Jose killed all of your allies and is using them to attack my guildmates.”

“This is true. He is also planning to use Abyss Break to destroy half of the town.”

“What!” yelled Gray, standing bolt up, “Why didn’t you tell me that earlier! How do we stop it?”

“At this point, we would need to engage Jose in combat. In order to draw the magic circle large enough to do sufficient damage, it would require large amounts of concentration. If he were to divert his attention to fighting, he would be unable to continue drawing the circle. Another option is to instead engage Aria, since Jose would have to supply the air, which would put too much strain on him to continue.”

“In that case, let’s find Aria. We beat him and our guild’s heaviest hitters will be back in action.”

“He should be in the upper neck. Juvia knows the fastest route.”

Juvia ran toward the head of the mech. Gray ran after her and they arrived at the base of the neck. Juvia opened a door and they went in. They ran up a metal spiral staircase and arrived at a hallway. Standing there was a mountain of a man wearing a green cloak and hat, bandages covering his eyes, which had tears streaming down from them. Across from him stood and END.

“So sad to see allies turn on one another,” said the man in green, “Especially when they are my own comrades.”

“Can it Aria,” said Juvia, “This mage is my soul mate and Jose has, on several occations, threatened my life. What did you expect was going to happen?”

“Yes, but what makes it even better is that this demon,” Aria gestured to END, “is a member of Fairy Tail, though not one that holds any allegiance to it.”

“You went berserk, didn’t you?” Gray said.

“A more appropriate phrase would be that I became a psychopath,” said END, “If anything, Natsu is more berserk than I am. Also, I am END. Natsu and I are separate entities that are forced to share a body.”

“You have all his memories?” asked Gray.

“Yes, though none of the emotional connection to them. Quite frankly, the only reason any of you are still alive is because if I turn you all into bricketts than I’ll be kicked out of Fairy Tail for killing Gray, and the best chance I have of finding Zeref is with their aid.”

“That’s reassuring,” said Gray, “We’ll stay back here until you’re done with him. If you need help, just say something.”

“That would be best,” said END.

“But that assumes that I would be willing to let you decide my foe,” said Aria, “And I am no mere fool as to let that happen.”

Aria began to hover in the air and flew at Gray and Juvia. Moments before he would have struck them, however, a cage of light blue ice appeared around and surrounded Gray and Juvia. Aria slammed into the ice as a gust of wind ruffled Gray’s hair.

“Nice try dude,” he said, “You can’t slip through these bars.”

“But I can break them!” said Aria, striking the air between him and the cage with his opened palm. A blast of blue and gold flames licked through the air, however, negating whatever attack Aria had attempted.

“I said that I am your opponent,” said END, blue and gold flames enveloping his arm.

“And I,” Aria said, tugging at the bandages covering his eyes, “said that you were not.”

Aria pulled the bandages from his eyes as a blast of green light blasted forward and struck END.

“What?!” said Aria, stumbling backward, “Why didn’t it do anything!”

“Oh,” taunted END, “Somebodies never fought a demon before. We don’t use magic to kill people, we use curses.”

In an instant, END was standing where Aria had been while a hole the size of Aria had appeared in the wall in front of him.

Aria managed to stumble to his feet and climb through the hole.

“I’m impressed,” said END, “with that kind of force, an ordinary human would have been smeared on the wall behind you.”

“What, what was that just now?” panted Aria.

“Oh you can even talk! You sir are very strong. And to answer your question, I jumped forward and punched you in the jaw. No, I did not use my curse, I’m just that strong.”

“You monster.”

“Sir, I am an actual demon, that was actually created with the sole purpose of killing the unkillable master of all dark magics Zeref. I’m going to be very strong. And as my opponent, you’ll just have to deal with it. Or you could always, you know, die. Dying is always an option.”

A look of sheer terror crossed Aria’s face. He tried to fly away, but before he could even blink, END had grabbed a hold of his ankle.

“Silly human,” laughed END as blue-gold flames crept out of his hand and up Aria’s leg, “I didn’t say that you could run away. Your only options were to defeat me or die.”

END let Aria go, and he fell to his knees, howling in pain. END grabbed hold of the man’s jaw and pulled it up so that Aria was looking him dead in the eye.

END took his too long fingers and lit them on fire.

END took his flaming fingers and slowly placed them inside of Aria’s eye sockets.

END dropped the blinded man as he died. He turned to face Gray and Juvia and said “I’m really tired. I’m about to pass out and go back to being Natsu. You guys figure it out from there.”

And with that, END slumped to the ground. His scales began to retreat and turn back into human skin. As this was happening, the flames on Aria’s corpse seemed to die down. By the time END had returned to Natsu, the flames had sputtered out and died.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me: *returns from summer hiatus*  
> Readers: "Not even one hundred hits per chapter!"  
> Me: *Complains how no one seems to be reading this anymore after posting the shortest chapter yet*  
> You guys: "Give this woman like 200 hits in a week!"  
> Me:...wtf.
> 
> Thank you so much! And I really would appreciate it if you were to comment on how to improve my writing. In completely related news, the Pokemon fanfic "Apotheosis" is really good and you should check it out. That is the level of writing I aspire to have.


	24. Fairy Vengeance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Aria defeated, the only remaining member of Phantom Lord, their master Jose, a member of the ten wizard saints, appears, and he is not happy with what he sees. Luckily, the mages Aria incapacitated regained consciousness, and it's time for some good old fashion vengeance from Fairy Tail's master.

As Natsu fell to the ground, there was a moment of quiet.

Gray dropped the cage he had placed over he and Juvia, though he quickly regretted it, as the building began to tremble and fall.

“Ice Make: Floor!” Gray said, conjuring an icy surface to stand on as the building turned over on its side. “Can you break through the wall?”

“Yes,” said Juvia, before sending a blast of water out of her hand that struck the stone wall at the end of the hall. The wall crumbled when hit, leaving behind a hole roughly large enough for the mages to walk out one at a time.

Gray grabbed Natsu before he and Juvia ran for the opening. They had not made it halfway there, however, before dark purple shades whorled around him and condenced in front of him. The shades faded, leaving behind a large-chinned man wearing a dark blue uniform, the medal marking him as one of the ten wizard saints hanging from above his pocket and looking like a military medal.

“Gray Fullbuster,” said the man, his rage so great he was beginning to lose control of his magic, and dark tendrils of power began radiating off of him, “I am not a forgiving man. Yet you and that man in your arms went and made me very mad. I will give you ten seconds to run. I highly advise that take them if you want any chance of survival.”

“Juvia!” Gray yelled, staring into Jose’s eyes in shear terror.

Jose was suddenly enveloped in a bubble of water. “Run!” yelled Juvia, running past the bubble. Jose held out his hand and shot out a spectral hand that grabbed Juvia by the throat. The bubble burst, freeing Jose, who retracted the ghost hand, pulling Juvia close enough for him to strangle himself.

“What did I say when I let you join the guild?!” Jose roared, “You are an abomination! By all rights I should kill you just for existing, yet I let you join my guild! Do you know why? Because you are a pawn! A tool for which I could exact my vengeance against Fairy Tail! Yet here you are, working along-side one! It is high time I purge the world of your filth.”

Jose’s hand lit on fire, and suddenly bubbles began to form on Juvia’s neck. She gasped as she clawed at the man’s hand. Gray dropped Natsu and assumed the position to cast Ice Make: Sword, but before he could, Jose’s shades began to encircle him.

“Uh uh uh,” Jose chided, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. You cast a single spell, and I turn you into a shade.”

“If he were you, he wouldn’t.”

“Huh?” said Jose, turning around to see a flash of light strike him in the nose, knocking him back.

“But unfortunately for you,” said Jellal, floating in the air, glowing like the noon sun, “He’s not you, and neither am I.”

“Juvia are you ok?” said Gray, running to the water elemental’s side.

“Juvia’s boiled a little,” she said, “but she can fix that easily. More importantly, if we don’t get out of here, Jose’ll kill us both.”

“Hold on,” said Gray, heading over to the unconscious form of his guildmate, “I need to grab Natsu.”

“Juvia’ll get him,” she said, liquefying her arm and enveloping Natsu in it, drawing him closer to the couple. Together, they ran for the exit that Juvia had carved out of the wall. Juvia flung Natsu out before jumping into the sea herself. Gray also leapt out, silently praying that Juvia would catch both he and Natsu. His prayers were answered when a hand made of water that was the size of a small car grabbed a hold of them before putting them down on the cliff with the rest of Fairy Tail. Out of the hand emerged Juvia, who nerveously looked around at the members of Fairy Tail, who’s tired bodies were being drawn back into position to fight.

“It’s alright guys,” said Gray, pointing to his wrist, “She’s my fiancé. She was only a member of Phantom because Jose threatened to kill her.”

The tension immediately defused, and Ultear said “Welcome to team Ice Age, Juvia was it?”

“That’s right,” said Juvia, “and how are you standing? Aria incapacitated you.”

“When END killed him, their magic returned, and they could move again,” said Gray.

“Wait Natsu killed someone?” asked Makarov.

“Not Natsu, END,” explained Lucy, “two separate people. END’s a psychopath who would kill anyone if they got in his way of finding Zeref.”

“That’s fun,” said Simon.

“We will deal with that at another time,” said Makarov, “Right now we need to deal with Jose. Jellal can only hold him down for so long.”

“Right,” said Ultear, “You mind getting us over there?”

“That was my intention,” said Makarov, growing to the size of the Phantom Lord building and stepping off the cliff. He held out his hand and in stepped Ultear, Erza, and Simon. Using his other hand, Makarov punched the opposing guild hall, making a massive hole where his fist connected. Inside was Jose, holding Jellal by the collar.

“Oh, hello there Makarov,” said Jose, dropping Jellal, “Good to see you’re awake. Have you come to take your guild mate back?”

“That, and take vengeance on what you did to not only my other children, but also our guild hall.”

“Then by all means, face me,” said Jose, dark phantoms whipping around him, “Have at me.”

Jose extended his arm and sent forth a blast of ghosts, which struck Makarov clean in the jaw. Makarov grabbed ahold of the building, and even so just barely managed to stay on his feet. He placed his guildmates down on the same floor as Jose before shrinking down around his hand, landing him on the same floor.

Before Makarov had even finished shrinking, Simon had fallen into his shadow and charged Jose. Simon’s hands slipped out of his shadow and grabbed hold of Jose’s foot as he flew by, momentarily causing him sot loose his balance, which Erza took advantage of as she requipped into her heaven’s wheel armor and sent a dozen maces at the wizard saint in an attempt to knock him over. This attempt was in vain, however, as the maces were destroyed by another blast of phantoms. Erza requipped into her Adamantine armor to block the attack as Makarov finished shrinking.

Jose pulled his foot free from Simon’s grasp and stomped it down, only to slip on ice that Ultear had placed on the floor. While he didn’t fall, he did lose his balance again, and what finally tipped the scales into knocking him over was when Makarov grew his fist and punched the ground, causing a large shockwave to resonate threw the ground. Now that Jose was on the ground, Erza switched into a golden armor with a large gauntlet on one of her arms, pulled out a spear, and used it to fling Jose into a wall, shattering it.

Ultear took this opportunity to turn the time on the wall back, fusing it back together.

“That was easy,” said Erza, “It shouldn’t be this easy.”

“Don’t jinx it,” said Simon.

Suddenly, the wall that Jose had been sealed into turned to phantasmal mist, prompting Simon to point at it with both of his arms outstreatched. “This is why you don’t say anything!”

“It makes no difference,” said Makarov, taking a wide stance and positioning his hands as if he was holding a ball, “It will be over soon.”

As the wall broke, revealing Jose, now looking slightly worse for wear, though very upset. “Kneel before me or suffer the concequences.”

A ball of energy appeared in Makarov’s hands as he said “I should say the same to you. Three.”

“What nonsence,” boasted Jose, “asking me, your superior, to kneel?”

“Two.”

“Asking me, who was raised with the express purpose of bringing you down, to admit defeat?!”

“One.”

“I would sooner die then see that happen!”

“So be it,” said Makarov, clapping his hands together, unleashing a blinding light in all directions.

When the mages regained vision a moment later, where Jose had previously been standing was instead a withered mummy wearing his clothes and a similar hair style, albeit with white hair.

“This is why you do not wage war against Fairy Tail,” said Makarov, turning to leave, “We have Fairy Law, one of the legendary spells, at our disposal.”

The other Fairy Tail mages’ jaw dropped. “You killed him!” Simon said in awe.

“How could you do that?” asked Ultear, “Yes he was our enemy, but that does not mean we had to kill him!”

“I think I’m gonna be sick,” said Jellal, turning green.

“I never said that I wouldn’t kill someone,” said Makarov, “Likewise, I specifically said that I would protect this guild no matter what.”

“But murder?!” said Ultear, “Don’t you think that’s a little extreme?”

Makarov did not respond, and instead just grew massive as he left the building.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So for various reasons, I'm thinking about knocking back the frequency of these updates to only every other week. Let me know if you guys have any issue with this.


	25. Heaven's Assignment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The magic Council sends out a letter saying that Fairy Tail needs to send some mages to help an alliance take out members of the dark guild Dark Raven. Heaven's Eight is sent to take care of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where I'd put the Loke, Tower of Heaven, and Battle of Fairy Tail arcs. IF I HADN'T WRITTEN THEM OUT OF EXISISTANCE!!! So please enjoy the Oracien Seis Ar, with Oracien Seis as the protagonists.

Shortly after Phantom Lord had been dealt with, Laxus alerted the council what had happened. As payment, the magic council would fund for the construction of any guildhall that Makarov desired, and in any location, so long as it was still in the town of Magnolia. Makarov obviously decided to build the new hall bigger and better than it had ever been, and right on top of where the previous guild hall had been. It took the council three months to construct, but they finally managed to build the guild hall to the specifications that Makarov wanted.

The day after, Erik was having trouble falling asleep, as he always did during the month leading up to the harvest festival. All of the noise that people made when preparing for the event made it rather difficult for someone who, like Erik, had ears so strong they could actually read people’s minds up to a half-mile away. After being woken by his clumsy neighbor the third time that night, Erik decided to not bother with it.

“Come on Cubellios,” he whispered to the giant purple snake that he slept with, “Let’s go to the guild and get some breakfast.” The giant serpent uncoiled itself from around her master and slithered down the hall. Erik took a moment to look at his wrists before following the snake.

When the snake and poison mage arrived at the guild hall, the sun was just beginning to peak up over the ruins of Phantom’s former guildhall, which Makarov had decided to let be so that it could serve as a warning for anyone who wanted to take on Fairy Tail. Walking into the new hall, Erik wasted no time in hopping over the counter and heading into the pantry, where he got out some raw meat and a bag of rat poison. Tossing the meat to Cubellios, he poured the poison into a bowl with some milk and sat down to eat.

Which was exactly when the mail arrived via magical origami swan.

“That’s weird,” Erik thought aloud, picking up the swan, “Mail shouldn’t be here until later today, and even then, it shouldn’t be swan-oh shit this is urgent.”

Erik Sped read the letter and sighed, “I should get this to the old man.”

“You really need to stop reading aloud,” Cana thought, walking in, “people are going to think you’re crazy.”

“Well I can hear your thoughts,” Erik said, “I figure it’s only fair that I let you guys hear mine.”

“What did I say about responding to my thoughts?” Cana said, while thinking to herself “Why is he always wearing that coat? It could be a hundred gods damned degrees out and he’d be wearing that same fur lined coat.”

“Oh, would you look at that, Master’s awake,” Erik said, standing up, “I’m gonna go give this to him.”

Erik quickly walked out and over to the master’s house. He knocked on the door, and was greeted by the disheveled Makarov. “Yes Erik?” he asked.

“Letter from the council,” Erik said, handing him the letter, “It’s not anything bad, unless you count sending some of our members to go and take down a third of the Balam Alliance.”

“It’s too early for this shit,” sighed Makarov, “Alright, what are the conditions?”

“We can only send ten people or less, and we’re not the only guild participating. They’re also sending in Pegasus and Lamia, who as far as I’m aware have the same requirements. After that it’s got the address listed that you should send us to.”

“Us?” said Makarov, “What makes you think I’m sending you?”

“While I was explaining what to do, I listened to your thoughts. The Fernandezes’ anniversary is coming up soon, and Gray and Juvia are off honeymooning, so neither of their teams will be taking any jobs until November at the soonest. Dragon Tail is not only hunting a demon, but you’re afraid something might happen that would trigger END to wake up, which we’re trying to keep under wraps. Finally, you won’t send the Rajinshu because, as much as you think of the entire guild as your family, you still want biological great-grandchildren, and if anything happens to Mira that can’t happen. The next best team would be Heaven’s Eight. And before you yell at me for doing it, I can’t turn it off. The others might not like it, but they’d never go against the council.”

“Alright, go tell them,” said Makarov, closing the door behind him.

Erik went back to the guild hall and found Sorano and Sawyer there getting some breakfast.

“Hey, where’d you go? Your snake almost ate Cana,” said Sawyer.

“I’m gone for five minutes and she starts eating people,” Erik sighed into his hands. “Alright, I know you’re gonna hate it, but we got a job to do. It’s ordered by the council, so yes, we have to do it.”

“Damn it,” sighed Sorano, laying her head on the table.

“I’ll tell the others,” said Sawyer before running off in a blur to tell the others. A few minutes later, he returned with the other members of Heaven’s Eight in tow. “Alright, lets go.”

The mages headed down to the train station and got on the first train heading for clover, the closest town to where they were heading. After they had gotten settled, Sorano thought “Erik, I’ve been meaning to ask why you don’t get motion sickness like the Dragon Tail dragon slayers.”

“They are, or nearly are, masters of their magic,” Erik explained aloud, “I’m more or less making this up as I go along. That’s part of the reason I will occasionally train with them, they can tell me when I fuck up.”

“Ah,” said Richard, “I’d been wondering the same thing myself, I just hadn’t thought to ask.”

“I really didn’t care,” said Macbeth, going to sleep, “Just wake me when we get there”.

“Likewise,” said Erik, following Macbeth’s example.

 

**~o0o~**

It was early in the afternoon by the time Heaven’s Eight arrived at their destination. It was a large blue building in the middle of the woods, a five-minute carriage ride from the nearest settlement. When Heaven’s Eight walked in, they were greeted by three members of Blue Pegasus, all in suits, standing in a spot light.

“Ladies and gentlemen of Fairy Tail,” they said, their shadows casting over their faces, “It is a pleasure to finally meet you. We are the delegation from Blue Pegasus, the Trimens.”

“Hundred night Hibiki,” said one of them, a tall brunette.

“Holy night Eve,” said another, a short blonde.

“Empty night Ren,” said the third, the tallest, with skin the color of chocolate.

“I had heard that Blue Pegasus was a host club but I thought that was just rumors,” smirked Erik.

“And I had heard that Fairy Tail had some strange members,” said Eve, gesturing at Cubellios, “But I thought the snake was just a rumor.”

“A pleasure to meet you,” said Hibiki, guiding Sorano to a couch and pouring her a glass of wine, “You are every bit as beautiful as the rumors say, Angel.”

“Come, you should sit as well,” said Ren, placing his hand on Milliana’s back.

Milliana responded by wrapping the man in magical tubes. “How ‘bout you don’t do that,” was all she said before releasing him.

“My friends, I think that is quite more than enough of that, yes?” said a sickly-sweet voice at the top of the stairs.

“Yes, master Ichiya,” said Ren, getting up with a bow.

“Ichiya!” yelled Sorano, standing up right.

“Oh, my Angel, how lovely it is to once again smell your parfume,” said the owner of the voice, walking into the light to reveal that he was a short, fat man with unkept red hair and an almost geometric jawline.

“Oh, you were a lover of master Ichiya,” said the Trimen in unison, “we apologize for our conduct.”

“I have my purity intact thank you very much!” yelled Sorano.

“Clear all that away!” Ichiya said, “We’re not here to mess about!”

“Yes sir!” yelled the Trimen, cleaning up.

“I have heard all about you people,” said Ichiya, “Miss Sorano, Miss Milliana, the rest of you. I admit that I expected the Fernandezes, or perhaps the Rajinshu.”

“Well they’re not here, so you’ll have to deal with the rest of us,” said Erik.

Ichiya and the Trimen all looked at the men of Heaven’s Eight. After a moment, Ichiya pointed at them and said, “Oh, you men can just run off home.” The Trimen bowed low and said, “It has been a pleasure!” in unison.

“Dude,” said Erik, holding his hand out in disbelief, “We make up over half of the delegation from Fairy Tail.”

“Your vile serpent is giving off the most vile of parfumes,” said Ichiya, “It must leave.”

Heaven’s Eight went dead silent as Erik got a terrifying look in his eye. “You wanna die bitch,” he said, poison gas seeping out his mouth, “’cause I can end you in thirty different ways without taking a step.”

“Are you sure you want to try?” said Ren, an edge in his voice as the wind began to whip about.

“We are powerful mages, you know,” said Eve, the air growing colder.

“Enough already, all of you,” said Ichiya, “there is no need to fight.”

“I beg to disagree,” said Eric, who punched Ichiya so hard he went flying across the room to the door, “Nobody, insults Cubellios. Not around me. Not if they don’t wanna die.”

“Enough!” yelled Macbeth, “We are here to form an alliance to take down Dark Raven, this is not the time for infighting!”

“I couldn’t agree more,” said a man in the doorway. He was holding Ichiya’s face in one hand, and staff in the other. He was almost seven feet tall, with tanned skin and lean muscles with a balding head.

“Thank you, Jura,” said Ichiya, after being put down. He looked like an ugly doll standing next to the taller man.

“So, we’re gotten ourselves a wizard saint,” said Wally, “that’s dandy.”

“Why aren’t you freaking out?!” asked a woman with long messy pink hair, walking out from behind Jura, “Jura is one of the ten wizard saints!”

“I apologize for my companions and I’s lack of enthusiasm at being in the presence of one of the saints,” said Sho, bowing slightly, “However, no less than three of the members of our guild are a part of the same organization.”

“It makes no matter,” said a blue haired man with large eyebrows, coming in a long-side a shirtless man with a dog-like appearance, “All of the guilds are here, so a debriefing on what we are doing is in order.”

“Not true,” said Richard, “The delegations of Fairy Tail and Blue Pegasus are of relative fame, as is Mr. Jura, however I do not recall who the three of you are.”

“Sorry,” said the man with the eyebrows, “I had forgotten. I am Yuka.”

“Toby!” barked the dog-like man.

“And I am Sherry,” said the pink haired woman, before looking at her wrist, “And which one of you is Ren?”

“That would be I,” said Ren with a bow, “We will figure out who is joining whose guild after Raven is dealt with.”

A wave of mild disgust washed over Heaven’s Eight. They managed to keep it hidden, except of Milliana, who quietly hissed at the couple.

“Lonely, are you?” said Eve.

“I will cut you,” said Milliana, “Stay away.”

“Very well,” said Eve, backing away.

“Alright,” said Ichiya, “Now that everyone is here, I shall proceed to the explanation of the strategy!”

Ichiya began hoping down the hall saying, “But first I must sample the parfume of the restroom.”

“Oi!” grunted Erik, “Don’t lead us on like that!”

“You’re joining my guild,” said Sherry.

“Yes dear,” said Ren, defeated.

A few minutes passed, and Ichiya returned. “North of where we are now lies the Worth Woodlands. There is a powerful magic that was sealed there in ancient times called Nirvana. It is not very well known, and that is intentional, as the magic council has informed my master that it is a powerful magic that, if released, would shake the world to its core. We do not know how it would do this, however.”

“Dark Raven has sent their strongest members into Worth Woodlands, so we must assume Nirvana is their target. In order to prevent them from obtaining it, we have been otherized to do whatever is necessary.”

“Fortunately,” said Hibiki, summoning an illusionary square, “We out number their forces four to one. Unfortunately, the four members that were sent are the strongest members that we have confirmed to exist.”

“Nez Booms,” Hibiki said, showing an image on the square of a short, fat man with a heavily scarred face, “he’s highly punctual and uses bombs.”

“Vidaldus Taka,” Hibiki said, switching the image to a pale man dressed up like a heavy metal singer, “he calls himself ‘the demonic guitarist,’ but that’s all we have on him.”

“Info on this next guy is scarce,” Hibiki showed an image of a burly owl-man with a jetpack, “but what we do know is that his name is Fukuro, and no, the owl head is not a mask.”

“Lastly, their leader is Ikaruga,” Hibiki said, showing an image of a woman in a revealing light pink kimono with matching hair.

“Each one of these mages has enough power to take out a small guild singlehandedly,” said Ichiya, “So we must take full advantage of our numerical superiority.”

“I’m not all that good at combat,” warned Sho.

“Worry not,” Ichiya said, “Our strategy is not limited to simple combat. The important thing is that we locate their base of operations.”

“Their base?” asked Toby.

“We have yet to confirm this,” said Ren, “But we believe that they have established a temporary base of operations somewhere in the woodlands.”

“Do you plan on having us just walk in their blindly?” asked Yuka.

“If they did,” said Erik, “I can fix that, my magic enhances my senses to the point where I can out smell a bloodhound and hear what you’re thinking.”

“Plus,” said Sawyer, “My nickname isn’t Racer for nothing. I can’t take more than one passenger, and even then, it seriously screws with my speed, but I can still get to Crocus and back in under an hour. Once Cobra finds the base, I can run and beat them.

There was a brief moment of silence.

“How are you not wizard saints,” asked Jura.

“We’ve asked that several times,” said Macbeth.

“Well then,” said Ichiya, “That makes our jobs much easier. Once we find the base, we should bring them all back there, where we can use Blue Pegaus’ airship, _Christina_ , to destroy their base alongside them!”

“Isn’t that a little extreme?” asked Millinana, “bombing them to death?”

“That is the nature of the enemy we face,” said Jura, “Now, if combat does ensue, do not engage in one-on-one combat. Try to stay in groups of four.”

“How ‘bout we just stick with our own guilds until we need to split up?” advised Macbeth, “I’m not sure why the people from Lamia were picked, but it seems like three of the pegausi are part of the same team, and then their strongest member was just thrown in there at the end to make it four. As for us fairies, we’re all a part of the same team to begin with, so we know how we fight.”

“That is a good idea,” said Ichiya, “But be prepared to abandon it should the need arises.”

“Well duh,” said Macbeth, “I’m the leader of the team. I know how long plans last when combat is involved.”

“shut up and let’s get going,” said Erik, guiding Cubellios out, “If I spend one more second listening to that dog or those hosts hating Cubellios, I’m going to poison the lot of you.”

When Erik opened the door, a tanned-pink light enveloped the surrounding area.

“They’re here!” yelled Eric, slamming the door, right as the building exploded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should be doing homework right now. I have a three page essay due on Tuesday. Pray for my grades. Pray for me.


	26. Dark Raven's Arrival

The building went up in an explosion as Nez Booms smiled. An explosion of this size would certainly claim the lives of anyone unfortunate enough to be caught up in it. Nez turned to leave as the flames died when he heard a slight vibration in the rubble.

Emerging out of the flames was a bubble of blue vibrations, inside of which walked the light mage alliance. Only Erik was at all harmed, and even than he only had a slight burn.

“What!?” called Nez, “How are you still alive!”

“This is the best Dark Raven has to offer?” said Sawyer, suddenly standing beside Nez, “I’m insulted.”

Before Nez could react, Sawyer had already punched his forehead, knocking him out cold.

“Do not let your guard down,” said Jura as the wave bubble went down, “Nez was the weakest of the four that were sent after Nirvana.”

“Still,” said Sorano, “Why’d he attack us alone.”

MacBeth’s eyes grew wide when he heard that. “Shit,” he said, “He wouldn’t be. The others are probably within earshot.”

“They ran away when we walked out,” said Erik, “The whole reason they brought Nez was to potentially take out our weakest links, but mostly so that they could scout us out.”

“They’re cocky,” said Wally, “twelve on three, with one of us being a saint, and three more that by all rights should be.”

“Hey, be fair,” said Milliana, “They didn’t know who they were going to be dealing with.”

“But they are a member of the Balam Alliance,” Jura pointed out, “And if Dark Raven only sent thre people to collect Nirvana, they must be some of the best.”

“Right!” said Ichiya, “Young Cobra, would you be able to locate the villians better on the Christina?”

“That was your warship, right?” said Erik, “If it’s low to the ground, maybe. Otherwise the wind will just mask everything.”

“Alright, I will call her here!” said Ichiya, pulling a ring of keys from his pocket. He pressed a symbol on one of the keys, and a large white ship with a horse at the front and two large ornate wings on either side began to fly up above the trees.

“How do you intend for us to get on that thing?” asked Sorano.

“Worry not, dearest Angel,” said Ichiya, “The Christina comes equipped with teleportation lacrima, for easy boarding. Hibiki, if you would.”

“Yes, Mr. Ichiya,” said Hibiki, summoning a magical panel. He pressed a button, and the ship was consumed in a ball of fire.

The mages eyes all went wide, and Hibiki quickly said, “I had nothing to do with that, I swear.”

“Nez Booms most likely placed a bomb on Chirstina,” Macbeth said, “He probably set it to go off if anyone tried to use magic on the ship.”

“Another ploy to try and thin the herd,” Erik said, shaking his head “Theirs probably a shit ton of mines throughout this place, curtesy of this guy.” He kicked the unconscious Nez.

“I’ll go and give him to the council,” said Sawyer, picking up Nez, “You guys find their hide out while I’m gone. Should only take me about forty-five minutes.”

“I’ll go scout around,” said Erik, mounting Cubellios, who sprouted wings and began to fly a few feet in the air, “Any of you guys got telepathy?”

“I can use my Archive to communicate with you while you fly,” said Hibiki, “But I think you should take at least one companion.”

“I’ll go,” said Ren, “I can use my wind magic to fly myself for short distances, so I should be of great aid to your serpant’s flight.”

“Milly, you wanna come?” asked Erik, ignoring Ren.

Milliana nodded and mounted the serpant.

“We’ll be back in a few,” she said.

 

**~o0o~**

 

Forty-five minutes later, Sawyer came running back to the ruins of the alliance meeting spot to find that only Hibiki, who had his archive out, and the other members of Blue Pegasus waiting for him.

“What happened?” Sawyer asked.

“Cobra and Milliana have not yet returned,” Ichiya said, “After about ten minutes, the rest of Fairy Tail got antsy and demanded to go and look for them. We agreed that we would split into three groups, based on guild members, and try and find them. We stayed back so that Hibiki could organize the others while the rest of the Trimen and I could protect him in the event that he was attacked.”

“Where are the Fairies?” Sawyer said, tapping his foot.

“Does it matter?” asked a voice in the trees, “You will all be dead before they can get to you.”

The mages all quickly turned to face the source of the sound, and found that, standing in one of the trees, was Fukuro, the buff owl-headed member of Dark Raven. Strapped to his back was a massive jetpack, which he used to rocket down on the light mages. Racer rushed forward and grabbed Hibiki out of the path of the dive bomb, while at the same time Eve balsted the bird-man with a pillar of snow, forcing him to turn upward.

“That was a strong snow blast,” said Fukuro, brushing snow from his feathers, “But it was lacking in elegance. Here, let me show you!”

Fukuro landed a few feet from the group of light mages, and a swirling mass of snow danced from his fingertips toward them. Not even Sawyer had time to flee from the attack before it had already bound them all in icy chains.

“What the fuck?!” yelled Sawyer.

“As you said,” Fukuro said, pulling their chains with enough force to yank them forward slightly, “each of the remaining members of Dark Raven are strong enough to single handedly take down an entire guild. A few weaklings like you are nothing to me.”

Lightning crackled and the smell of ozone filled the air as Sawyer and the Pegasi fell unconscious.


	27. A Feast For Owls, An Erruption of Darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sawyer awakes in a cave, captured by Dark Raven. He must now deal with the interrogation tactics of the infamous Dark Guild.

The world was dark and fuzzy when Sawyer realized he was awake. As his vision cleared, Sawyer looked around and saw that he was chained to a large rock in a cave, facing away from the entrance, and that at least some of the Trimen, Ren and Hibiki, if he remembered right, were chained there beside him. “Ugh my head,” he groaned.

“Sawyer was that you?” asked Milliana, who seemed to be on the other side of the rock from Sawyer.

“Yeah, it’s me,” Sawyer said, sitting up, “Is Erik here?”

“Indeed he is,” said Fukuro, “though he is refusing to cooperate.”

“I’m not telling you where it is!” Erik shouted, “If it wasn’t for these damned antimagic cuffs, you’d be dead!”

“Oh don’t be like that,” said an ominously seductive feminine voice, “All we want, is for you to tell us what you hear. Is it that bad?”

“I came here to prevent you from getting Nirvana,” Erik spat, “There’s no way I’m telling you where it is, you whore.”

“Such harsh words,” said the woman, “but if I’m a whore, what does that make you?”

“What?!” Erik said, his voice beginning to tremble.

“Who do you think put those cuffs on you?” said the woman, “I had to look at your wrists when I did it, and I saw your little secret.”

There was a pause, and then Erik gasped.

“Now, unless you want me to reveal that to the world,” said the woman, “Will you help us?”

Erik inhaled, and all was silent for a moment. At last, he sighed and said “If you win, I’m gonna die. If you lose, you’re gonna spend the rest of your life in prison. Who’d believe a criminal when they say that the terrible person who captured them is a terrible person? Nice try, but you don’t know the first thing about me.”

“Oh, I beg to differ,” said the woman, “I just didn’t want to have to do this if I didn’t have to. Taka, would you please bring it in.”

“Alright!” said a high pitched screech of a man’s voice as footsteps went toward the cave entrance, “Time to send this basilisk down to Hell where it belongs!”

“Such a shame that we must destroy such a valuable specimen,” said Fukuro, “Full grown basilisk go for five times their weight in gold on the black market.”

Horrified hissing came from the entrence to the cave, followed by what sounded like the snapping of ropes. The hisses became muffled, and the footsteps returned to the cave.

“Cubellios!” cried Erik, “What are you gonna do to her!?”

“You left us no choice,” said the woman, “are you _sure_ you don’t want to talk? It would be so much easier for you, and we won’t have to feed your little snake to Fukuro.”

“Wh, why do you even wa, wa, want Nirvana?” Erik stuttered.

“The world is covered in light,” said the woman, “We want to take that light, and turn it to darkness. For that, we need Nirvana. Now, where can we find it?”

“I, I don’t know,” Erik said, “I haven’t heard it’s echo.”

“Alright,” said the woman. The metallic sound of a blade grating against it’s sheath reverberated throughout the cave. Sawyer heard the rattling of chains, and then a thud. “Find Nirvana. Now.”

“Erik don’t!” cried Milliana.

“Shut it, bitch!” shrieked the high pitched male voice, “You’ll get yours soon enough.”

Sawyer called out “Erik! If you tell them, we’re all gonna die!”

“But we might be able to beat them,” Erik said in a shaking voice, “If I don’t tell them, Cubellious dies.”

“No!” yelled Sawyer, “You saw how easily they took us down! If they get Nirvana, it’s all ov-ouf!” Fukuro punched Sawyer hard in the stomach.

“It would be better for everyone if you just let him continue his delusions of victory,” the owl said, “Because if we cannot use the snake, we will move on to you and your companions.”

“It still be better than letting you assholes get Nirvana,” Sawyer spat.

“Stop!” said Erik, “I’ll do it, just, don’t hurt them anymore.”

“I promise that we will not harm one hair on their heads if you tell us where Nirvana is located,” said the woman.

Sawyer heard the ruffling of clothes, and then what sounded like someone hitting the ground.

“It sounds like theirs a massive underground city about three miles north west from here,” Erik said, “Sounds like it’s in a clearing with some tall rocks in it. Big tree in the center, maybe some chains around it. You can’t miss it.”

“Thank you, Erik,” said the woman, “Before we go, however, you’re going to have to put the cuff back on. Alright?”

“Sure, sure,” said Erik, his coat ruffling as he rose to his feet, “one thing first.”

And then the room filled with a purple gas. Sawyer heard three bodies fall to the ground in quick sucession, and felt the chains around him slacken.

“Keep touching the chain,” Erik said through the smoke screen. “It’s destroying the poison you inhale.”

“The one time I’m glad to be bound in antimagic cuffs,” Sawyer said, grabbing the chain as he stood up, “I’ll grab the goblin and tall blonde, you get the others.”

“Yeah,” said Erik, “Cubellious, guide Milliana out of here.”

“One problem with that,” said Fukuro from the ground, “I have no intention of letting you.”

The fog began to quickly drain out of the air toward where Fukuro’s voice had come from.

“MILLY!” yelled Eric.

“Antimagic chain!” Milliana yelled back, hopping toward the exit, “Can’t magic if I touch it, can’t move if I don’t!”

“Dammit!” called Sawyer, grabbing Ichiya and Hibiki as he hurried toward the exit.

“Cubellios, get out of here!” yelled Erik, running out of the cave, holding Hibiki and Eve under each arm.

The fog had cleared, revealing Fukuro, standing in the enterance to the cave, with one major change to his appearance. He no longer had an owl-like head, but instead a purple scaled snake.

“I’m sorry, but Cubellios is a little, indisposed at this time,” said Fukuro, “How else do you think I absorbed that neurotoxin?”

Sawyer dropped the antimagic chain as he called out “Run!” He followed his own advice, and ran as fast as his legs could carry him. He didn’t care where he went, just that he was putting as much distance between him and Fukuro as possible. He only stopped running when he took a step only for his foot to not touch land.

Sawyer stood up as he took in his surroundings. The pit was about half a mile across, with stone pillars sprinkled throughout that were roughly twice, maybe even three times, as tall as he was. In the center was a large tree that had iron chains seeming to mold out of it and wrap around the stones.

“Ah shit,” said Sawyer, palming his face, “I found Nirvana.”

Sawyer let out a sigh, and looked over Ichiya and Hibiki to make sure they weren’t to hurt. He found that, tucked into one of the pockets of Ichiya’s coat, was a number of vials of liquid, each one labeled. He quickly looked over the vials, and found that one of them was labeled as “Vitality”, which he hoped wasn’t for erectile dysfunction as he uncorked it.

The scent of tea and coffee waifed through the air, and the members of Blue Pegasus began to stir.

“My head,” muttered Hibiki, “What happened?”

“We were captured by Dark Raven,” Sawyer explained, “Erik helped us to escape, but I got spooked and ran away. I used your vitality parfume to wake you guys up. I need you to contact the others and tell them we’ve found Nirvana, and that Dark Raven knows where it is.”

“Right,” said Hibiki, pulling up his holographic screen. He pressed a few buttons, before saying “There, they know. Now what do you plan on doing?”

“Well,” said Ichiya, “I have a flame parfume, and it appears that Nirvana is this tree. Dark Raven cannot control Nirvana if it’s ash.”

“Alright,” Sawyer said, “I’ve got super speed, how can I help you burn it down?”

“I will handle the parfume,” said Ichiya, “but match sticks burn faster than trees.”

“On it!” Sawyer said with a thumbs up. He charged up the tree and kicked a large branch. The instant his foot made contact, a massive pillar of light erupted from the tree. The tree was ripped to shreds, and Sawyer was launched high into the sky.

“Racer are you alright!” yelled Hibiki in Sawyer’s mind.

“This is fine, this is fine,” he said, falling toward the ground, “I’ve just been launched like a thousand miles into the sky. I can survive this. I just gotta slow down enough that I don’t die when I hit the ground. Luckily, I can do that fairly easily with magic. Not gonna do that now though, I’d be up here all day if I did. Just let me know when, Hibiki.”

“How long will it take you to slow down, and how much slower can you make yourself?”

“I can slow myself down to about two-hundreth my normal speed,” Sawyer said, eyeing the ground, “and can do it in less than a second. It’s a little hard to time these things.”

“Ok, that gives us quite a bit of error room, so I’m going to stop you early, ok?”

“Better to have taken a long ass time to fall twenty feet than be a pancake. Take as long as you need.”

“Alright.” Hibiki paused for several seconds, and all that Sawyer heard was the wind whipping in his ears as he fell. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Hibiki finally said “Now.”

Sawyer activated his magic, and everything around him sped up so fast that he could hardly even see anything. What was important though, was that he didn’t. He felt, more than saw, Hibiki pulling him down to the ground. He deactivated his magic, and promptly vomited.

“Damned vertigo,” said Sawyer, “This is why I never use that magic on myself.”

Sawyer smelt mint, and felt his stomach settle down, as Ichiya said “We have bigger fish to fry, dear Racer. Namely, the fact that a massive pillar of light begging everyone within a hundred miles to come here. We must hurry and find a way of dealing with it.”

The ground began to shake violently. “Gods damn it,” muttered Sawyer, “what now?”


	28. A Change of Hearts

As Sawyer ran away, Milliana began to give a silent prayer that she would be able to out run the snake monster that now stood before her.

“That man made the right choice to run,” said Fukuro with Cubellio’s mouth, “I would advise that you do the same, but we both know that you cannot out run me.”

“Milly,” said Erik, his hands growing scaly as dark purple mist seeped around his fists, “follow Sawyer. I’ll try and buy you time.”

“Good luck with that,” said Fukuro, sending a blast of fire out at the pair of mages, “I have no intention of letting you go!”

“RUN!” yelled Erik, a plume of poison gas erupting from his mouth, striking the flames and exploding. A dark cloud of dust filled the air, and Milli ran.

Suddenly, Fukuro had a hold of Milli’s neck, flying several feet off the ground.

“Snakes have a much stronger sense of smell than I thought they did,” he said, wine red gas flowing from his maw, “They also have a strong taste for cat.”

Fukuro’s jaw unhinged as he drew Milli closer. She struggled against his vice-like grip, but it was fruitless. Erik stood there, unable to do anything without risking hurting Milli.

Suddenly, a pillar of black light erupted out in the distance. Fukuro stopped trying to eat Milli so that he could look at the dark light. His grip loosened slightly, and Milli managed to pry her way out of his grip. She fell, only for Erik to catch her.

“Looks like I overestimated your companion’s intellect,” said Fukuro, “It appears that he has released Nirvana. I think I shall go and-” the snake headed man’s eyes grew wide and he stumbled before falling to the ground.

“Erik, now’s our chance!” said Milli, before turning to face Erik, who had also fallen to his knees.

“Ah, ah, ah,” panted Fukuro and Erik, who were convulsing wildly on the ground “Ohhh, agh! AAAHHH!!!” And just like that, their screams of agony seaced, as did their convulsions. Now, they merely kneeled there in the dirt.

There was a moment of silence, and then Erik began to laugh, “mwa hahaha,” Erik rose to his feet, “So that’s what Nirvana does.”

“Erik are you ok?” asked Millianna, recoiling in slight fear.

“Oh I’ve never been better,” said Erik, “or should I say worse? You see, I’ve been effected by Nirvana. I don’t know why you’re unaffected, but when I got that splitting headache just then, that was Nirvana fucking with my head and flipping my morality. I recall thinking that murder was wrong, but now I fail to see any issue with it. I seem to remember thinking that you were as close to me as any human ever had been, but now I look at you like a diseased rat in need of extermination,” Erik got to his feet and let his poison flow over top his body as a smirk plastered itself on his face, “I’m gonna give you thirty seconds to run before I kill you.”

“Wha, what?”

“Times ticking, bitch. You better start running if you want any chance of beating me. Oh wait, you still won’t, because we both know the only one in our entire fucking team who could stand a god damned chance of beating me is Midnight, and even then he can’t use his hack magic to block mine. So why don’t you just fucking run, so that I can have a little more fun in skinning you alive.”

Fukuro got to his feet and said “You bastard, she’s your fucking teammate.”

“Was,” corrected Erik, “She was my teammate. Now she’s just a dumb pussy cat that I need to kill. And don’t think that you’re any better off. I’m going for you next. My morals might have flipped, but I still care for the only god damned thing that kept me sane during my time at the Tower of Heaven, that snake you’re fucking wearing as a face. I’d say you’ve got about, oh, I don’t know, about five seconds before I start trying to kill you. By the way, Milliana, your time’s up.” Erik extended his fist toward Milliana as purple mist congealed around it. “Now it’s time for you to die. Poison Dragon’s Horn!”

An enormous blast of wine red poison erupted from Erik’s fist in the shape of a horn. Before any of them had any idea what happened, Fukuro had already lunged forward and grabbed hold of Milliana, as well as Ren and Eve, who were nearby, unconscious.

“What the,” said Milliana, looking up at her rescuer, “Ok, would you like to explain what happened back there?”

“Nirvana’s first layer of defense has been broken,” Fukuro said, “What’s now happening, as it was described to me, is that all peoples that can see it’s light are now at risk of having the light and darkness of their hearts switch places, so long as they teeter in the space between light and dark.”

“In English,” Milliana said.

“If you’re evil, and you don’t like it,” said Fukuro, “or if you’re good, and you’re very angry, then your morals will switch. That’s what happened for me and Cobra.”

“Ok,” said Milliana, “Can we get to Nirvana then? Racer is probably there already.”

“Already there,” said Fukuro, floating in the air above Nirvana. They settled down, near where Sawyer and the other Trimen were standing.

“Are you here to bargain,” asked Ichiya, pulling out a parfume.

“No,” said Fukuro, “I have defected from the enemy. I am now your ally. Nirvana swapped my morality.”

“As well as Erik’s,” said Milliana.

“We’re fucked,” said Sawyer, “Are you gonna contact the others already? Cause we need the others here, now. Erik’s one of the three best members of our Heaven’s Eight. We don’t really stand a chance against him.”

“Also, he is able to listen to our thoughts,” said Milliana, hoping down, “We need a telepath if we’re going to communicate.”

“I can fulfill that position,” said Hibiki, typing on illusionary screens, “I’m going to contact the others and tell them to get over here.”

“Scratch that last part,” said Sawyer, “I can carry them here one at a time.”

“And I can get a few,” said Fukuro, “Though Richard will have to go by himself.”

“Yeah, him and Jura are probably the only ones that I can’t carry.”

“Then I will get them first,” nodded Fukuro, “Shall we go now?”

“Before you go,” asked Ichiya, “How long should it take your former companions to arrive here?”

“They’re most likely only gaining consciousnesses now,” said Fukuro, “so I would wager that it would take them about an hour and a half or so.”

“That’s not much time,” mused Hibiki, “I ran a seismic detector in the hopes of finding out what Nirvana is exactly, and it turns out it’s a city with legs like an octopus. If we’re going to find a way of restoring Cobra’s morals-“

“I already know how,” Fukuro interrupted.

“What?”

“I already know how to restore his morals. Nirvana affected him because his heart was full of rage after I ate Cubellious, so if he ends his rage while still able to see Nirvana’s light, he will go back to normal.”

“And how do you propose we do this?” asked Ichiya.

“His rage will end when he kills me,” said Fukuro, “I’m already wanted dead or alive, and the government is going to execute me anyway, regardless of what I do once they capture me, so it would be best if I went down at the hands of Cobra, so that he can return to the side of light. Also, Cobra, if you’re listening, do not tell my companions what you are hearing. They will try to prevent you from killing me if they find out.”

“Would Cobra be upset by killing ordinarily?” asked Ichiya.

“More of Heaven’s Eight have killed than haven’t,” said Sawyer.

“Erik’s actually got the highest body count out of all of us,” said Milliana, clutching her arms, “He wouldn’t have a problem with it.”

“I think it would be best if Racer and I went and got the others now,” said Fukuro, before turning to Ichiya and glaring as he said, “and that we did not ask any further questions on that front.”


	29. A Snake Skin Prison

It took Erik about an hour to get to Nirvana, during which the light mages had all gathered up. He looked out over a hill at them as he called out “Hey Fukuro! I’m here to mount your head on my wall!”

Midnight said to the others “If all goes according to plan, he shouldn’t do that.”

“I care not if he did,” said Fukuro, walking toward his killer, “but if he would be so kind as to melt my body, that would be nice. I don’t want Dark Raven to have my body.”

“I make no promises!” yelled Erik, walking down the hill, “But if everything goes as you plan it, I probably will.”

“Thank you,” said Fukuro.

“If you idiots are done,” said Ikagura standing next to the pillar of light, “I’d like to bring your attention to the fact that we’re here, with Nirvana in our grasp.”

The pink haired swordswoman took out her blade and slashed at the light. There was a flash, and the ground began to shake

“Oh shit,” said Macbeth, “Fukuro, what the fuck is this?!”

“She uses sword magic, she can cut anything!” yelled Fukuro, flying toward Erik, “She just severed the etherious that was keeping Nirvana under that light! Try and stick together, and pray to the gods that you’re not at the edge of the town.”

“Wha?” said Erik as he was lifted up into the air, “Hey! Put me down so I can kill you!”

“Not yet,” said Fukuro, “Nirvana is being released. You can kill me after that.”

The shaking of the ground grew more violent, and the ground began to split open as what looked like ruins of an ancient metropolis rose up out of it. The city continued to rise up, revealing that the foundation of the city looked to be the top of a mountain turned upside down. Supporting the city were six large tentacle like structures that looked like they were made out of the same cobblestones and mortar as the city streets.

“Oh,” said Erik, awestruck at the size of the city, “I see.”

“Bigger than you thought?” asked Fukuro, landing on top of one of the buildings.

“This place looks like it’s three times the size of Magnolia,” Erik said, hoping off of Fukuro’s arms, “That and the arms are a bit much to process.”

“Fair point,” said Fukuro, “but the light mages are currently trying to fight the other members of Dark Raven, so if you could hurry up and become good again, that would be very nice.”

“Why are you so keen on being killed?” asked Erik, turning to face the snake-headed man, “Most people I kill beg me to let them live.”

“A combination of wanting to limit the number of people who are on the side of Dark Raven, guilt, and not wanting you to become a criminal,” said Fukuro, “It’s terrible. I break and enter one time and suddenly I can’t get a job anywhere but in the underworld. Can’t even leave it now, the bounty on my head is too high. They’d kill me on sight.”

“Fair enough,” said Erik, “But I’m pretty sure that if you squealed on your master, they’d let you live.”

“Dark Raven is set up to prevent that from happening,” Fukuro said, “The only members of Dark Raven I know are those that are already captured, or came with me on this job.”

Erik shrugged, “Not that it matters, I’d still have killed you.”

Erik covered his foot in magical acid and struck Fukuro’s head. It connected not with a crunch but with a splat, as Fukuro’s head dissolved as it flew off of his neck. As Fukuro’s body fell, Erik felt the strange effects of Nirvana leave him. He fell to his knees and let out a sigh.

“Erik, are you back?” asked Hibiki’s voice in Erik’s mind.

“Yeah,” Erik said, “Just give me a minute, Nirvana took more out of me than I thought it would.”

“I understand,” said Hibiki, “but can you take your minute somewhere else? I ran a scan of Nirvana’s lay out, and it turns out that it’s powered by six large lacrima. If we destroy them, Nirvana will be unable to move.”

“No doubt the ancients put some sort of a fail safe in case that ever happened,” Erik said.

“Indeed,” Hibiki replied, “the only way to destroy any of them would be to destroy all of them. Simultaneously. And theres thre miles between each of them.”

“Hold on,” Erik said, punching the ground, “Oh, there’s one a block away.”

“Yes, and the rest of us are on the other side of the city,” Hibiki said, “So you take care of that one, alright?”

“Sounds good,” said Erik, standing up.

Erik went to leave when he saw Fukuro’s body.

Erik let out a sigh before walking over to it. “You might have been a terrible person,” he said, “and you might have only had a change of heart because magic forced you to, but the least I can do is give you the burial you wanted.” Erik placed his hand on the corpse’s shoulder, and was about to dissolve it when he heard something that he did not expect come from the stomach of the corpse. Movement.

Erik created claws of venom from his fingertips, just like he used to before joining the guild to pry open windows. Carefully, he began to cut away at the corpse’s stomach, revealing a large growth inside of the stomach. The skin was stretched thin enough for Erik to see, after whipping away the visera that covered it, that there was a young girl with short purple hair lying unconscious and naked in the stomach. Erik ripped it open and pulled the girl out before wrapping her in his jacket. He dissolved the corpse before lifting the girl up in his arms, and heading to the lacrima.

As Erik walked, the girl began to stir. She opened one of her eyes, and smiled before burying her face into Erik’s chest.

“Hey, are you awake?” Erik asked.

“Yeah,” mumbled the girl, “but my legs still feel weak. I don’t think I could walk.”

“It’s alright,” said Erik, “You don’t actually weigh all that much. Would you mind telling me your name?”

“I’m Kinana,” she said, “though if you want to, it’s fine if you keep calling me Cubellios.”

“I’m sorry what?” Erik said, his eyes growing wide as he stopped walking.

“I said that my name was Kinana,” thought Kinana, “and that you’ve been calling me Cubellios ever since you found me in Tower of Heaven.”

“How could you-“ Erik began.

“My dad was in debt to the mob,” Kinana interrupted, “in order to pay them back, he used magic to turn me into a basilisk. They sold me to the cultists at the tower, but I was small enugh to just slip out. I found you and have been following you around ever since.”

“Two things,” Erik said, “First, why didn’t you try to tell me before now? You could have written something down. Second, how are you human now?”

“I couldn’t write anything down because snake me only had access to some of my memories,” Kinana said, “And I’m human now because that bird headed guy digested the magic that was keeping me a snake.”

Erik let out a sigh of confusion before shaking his head and continuing to walk toward the lacrima. When they arrived, it was a large spherical room, with a single lacrima sitting in the center of a pillar that went from the bottom to the top of the room. Erik placed Kinana down just outside the room and sat down across from her.

“So,” Erik said, “You know my life story, and I know how you got to be a snake, but I don’t know anything else. You should fix that.”

“Alright,” said Kinana, “well, to be honest with you, I’m not to clear on everything myself. Most of the details are fuzzy. What I do know is that I was thirteen when I turned into a snake, which I think was six years ago.”

“Then you’d be about my age,” said Erik, “but it doesn’t look like you’ve aged while you were a snake.”

“True,” said Kinana, looking at her wrist, “but that seems to either not matter, at least not by my wrist.”

“What?”

“You know how you haven’t had a soulmate timer since you met me?” Kinana asked him.

“Yeah,” Erik grumbled, “It means I’m a monster. Only sick monsters lose their timers.”

“Do you remember when your timer was supposed to go off?” Kinana asked.

“I forget the exact day,” Erik said, “but if I recall correctly, it was some time this year.”

“It was earlier today,” said Kinana, “and the reason you lost your timer was because you’d met your soulmate before your timer said you would, just not in a way that your timer would recognize.” She held up her wrist and showed Erik what was written there.

Erik looked down at his wrist, and was shocked to see, written in the same color as her hair, one single word. “Kinana,” it read.

“Oh shit,” said Erik, “You’re my soulmate!”

“Could I have any other after what we’ve been through over the last few years?” Kinana asked as she embraced him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That moment when you realize that you can't write a story in third person to save your life.  
> Yet you've already written almost 30 chapters in third person.  
> And have published them.  
> So you can't change it now.
> 
> Feel free to comment, I really would like feedback.


	30. Cubes&Pegasi vs. Heavy Metal

As Nirvana began to emerge up out of the ground, the members of Dark Raven and the Light guilds looked over one another. A tense moment passed before Ikagura turned to her companion and said, “Vidaldus, would you take care of these pests while I manage the city?”

“I’ll send them straight to hell!” he said in reply.

“Good,” Ikagura said, running off down a newly formed street.

“Like I’d let you!” Jura yelled, his hand glowing yellow as a pillar of stone erupted up out of the ground and soared at the swordswoman. She did not even pause, and instead drew her blade and reduced the stone to rubble with a flick of her wrist.

“Tsk,” Jura said, running after the escaping woman “Lamia, after her!”

“Buchanans stay,” said Macbeth, giving pursuit “Other Fairies follow!”

“Like Hell!” roared Vidaldus, stinging his guitar. The shock waves rippled out from the guitar directly at Millinana, only to be stopped by a holographic bubble.

“When did we say that this was an ok split up?” asked Hibiki.

“Rarely do you get to actually choose who you team up with in war,” said Wally, pointing his finger-gun at Vidaldus when it morphed into a blocky rifle, “But at least we look dandy.”

“Are you planning on shooting the shield?!” asked Richard.

“Don’t worry,” said Wally, “I’m just waiting for the bubble to give out so I can shoot him.”

Hibiki smiled as he said “Then you’ll have to wait a very long time. That bubble is nearly indestuctable.”

Tendrils of Vidaldus’ hair leapt forth and struck the bubble with a dull thunk and a malicious grin spread across his face. He held up three fingers.

“Oh no,” said Hibiki, “That hairs a lot stronger than I thought it would be.”

A second tendril of dark hair struck the bubble, and a faint crack could be heard.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” said Eve, “Hibiki’s bubble is the second greatest defensive move in our entire guild!”

“Then I advise you turn your attention more toward your offence,” said Richard, “That clearly seems to be your specialty.”

Another blow from Vidaldus’ hair, the crack from this blow now plain to see.

“Supposing they even focus on combat,” said Wally, his gun aimed keenly on Vidaldus’ neck, “They’re hosts, remember?”

Vidalsus’ hair struck the bubble a third time and it popped on contact. As soon as the hair had touched the barrier, Wally took the shot. With a bang, a flash of light flew from the end of his gun toward Vidalsus, who blocked it with his hair, singeing it in the process.

“Oh you little bitch!” roared Vidaldus, “You know how hard it is to fix my hair after you’ve burned it?”

“Not as hard as this would be, I imagine,” said Richard, swiping his hand through the air. The ground around Vidaldus turned to mud as the buildings began to lean in on him.

“Shit!” yelled Vidaldus, about to stum his guitar, when a blast of wind nearly knocked him off his feet, and as he flung his arms about to regain balance, a second gust knocked his guitar from his hand.

“Nice shot!” said Eve.

“It’s nothing,” said Ren, “Now all we have to worry about is his hair.”

“Which I will handle!” said Ichiya, pulling out a vial of red liquid. Pulling off the stopper, he said, “Behold, my strongest ranged parfume, the fire parfume,” before blowing over it. His breathe turned to a fireball as it went over the parfume, directly at Vidaldus.

Unfortunatly, Vidaldus had taken advantage of the excessive theatrics and used his hair to pull one of the buildings that Richard had turned to mush over to block the attack, as well as give him enough leverage to pull himself out of the mud.

“This is why you don’t announce your attacks!” said Richard, clapping his hands to the ground. The building that was blocking their vision turned to sand, as did the ground around it. Vidaldus, now exposed and holding his guitar, immediately took advantage of the sand and stuck a cord, sending a wave of sand at the mages that was so heated it turned to tiny glass shards in midair.

Eve held out his hand, and suddenly a blizzard blasted out of his hand, stopping the glass from doing any damage to the mages, but the sudden temperature changes from the snow and molten glass created a smokescreen.

Hibiki pulled out his archive and the light mages heard his voice in their head. “No talking, only thinking. He’s ten feet ahead, holding his guitar at roughly four feet up, directly in front of Eve.”

“Eve’s six feet from me, right?” thought Wally.

“Yes,” thought Hibiki, before he heard a pop and the then a thud.

“He’ll be out for a few hours,” said Wally, “Can you get rid of the smoke, Ren was it?”

“Are you sure he’s out?” said Ren.

“Vitals confirmed,” said Hibiki, “He’s entered REM sleep. If we’re careful he shouldn’t wake up for another six to seven hours.”

“More than enough time to defeat Nirvana,” said Richard, the smoke already clearing, “Speaking of, Hibiki, can you figure out how to do that?”

“Give me moment,” said Hibiki, tapping a few buttons on the screen of his Archive. The mages heard a ping sound, and Hibiki said, “Found out how to bring this place down. It’d be faster if I just did this,” a few button presses later, the mages all knew about the lacrima powering Nirvana. “I’ve told the entire alliance, excluding Erik, since I’m not sure who’s team he’s on right now.”

“Check up on him, would you?” asked Ichiya, “It would be a shame if he had fallen too deep into the dark side.”

“I’m already one step ahead of you, sir,” said Hibiki, “Now please be quiet while I make a call.”

Hibiki was quiet for a moment, before his archive pinged.

“What was that?” asked Richard.

“Macbeth telling us that he and the others have received the info,” Hibiki said, “He says that they should be able to handle Ikagura, we should handle the lacrima as soon as we can. Get to your positions, I’ll give the signal once we’re all in position. Erik’s already heading to the one farthest from here, so I’d go to anyone other than that one. I’m not sure if he’s been converted back to our side.”

“Wait,” said Ichiya, “what if in the chaos, Vidaldus wakes up? We must apprehend him.”

“Thank you for reminding me, sir,” said Richard, waving his hand in front of him, softening the earth around the sleeping man as it surged up and enveloped everything but his face. The earthen cacoon encasing Vidaldus then floated up out of the ground and toward Richard, who said, “I will carry him with me, if that’s alright with everyone.”

“I’ve got no objection,” said Wally.

“Nor do we,” said Ichiya, “Now quickly, we must depart. God speed, fairies.”

“You to, pegasi,"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Feedback would much be appreciated!
> 
> Sorry for not posting last week guys! I had an essay for my history class that was due the next day. Anyway, to anyone reading this from outside the US, I envy you in so many different ways right now. I have to go and spend most of next week living with my parents. Who are republicans. And I’m a trans lesbian.
> 
> Gods have mercy on my soul.


	31. Finally?

So, guys, I sat down to write the next chapter, pulled up the music I listen to when writing, and had a thought: If I go back and make a new series told from first person pov, but tell the same story, I can clean up all of the mistakes and Chekov’s guns that don’t actually do anything. So I’ve decided to do that. This series will remain up, at least until the new one catches up with it, at which point I will delete it. The schedule for that one will be only one chapter a fortnight (two weeks, one to write it, the second to edit it), and will have some additional chapters during the time from before the start of the canon to flesh out the relationships between the various characters.

Here is a link to the new work: http://archiveofourown.org/works/12902715

Finally, I got Ultra Sun and Moon in the mail last week, and am going to make a fanfic based on it after I finish my second play through. I’m currently not even halfway through my first.


End file.
